Bill Brock
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William Emerson Brock III (November 23, 1930 – March 25, 2021) was an American politician from the state of
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
. A member of Republican Party, he served in both chambers of the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for four terms from 1963 to 1971 and a
senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
for one term from 1971 to 1977. He later served in the
Cabinet of the United States The Cabinet of the United States is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The Cabinet generally meets with the president in Cabinet Room (White House), a room adjacent to the Oval Office in the West Wing of ...
from 1981 to 1987 under
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
. He was the grandson of William E. Brock Sr., a Democratic U.S. senator from Tennessee who served from 1929 to 1931.


Early life and career

Brock was born on November 23, 1930, in
Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
,
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, where his family owned a well-known candy company. He was the son of William Emerson Brock Jr. and Myra (Kruesi). Brock is named after his grandfather, William Emerson Brock, who also served in the U.S. Senate. His maternal great-grandfather was John Kruesi, a machinist and close
Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...
associate who was originally from Appenzell, a historic canton in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. Brock was a 1949 graduate of The McCallie School and a 1953 graduate of
Washington and Lee University Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee or W&L) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. Established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, it is among ...
in
Lexington, Virginia Lexington is an Independent city (United States)#Virginia, independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, Virg ...
, in 1953 and subsequently served in the U.S. Navy until 1956. He then worked in his family's candy business. Brock had been reared as a Democrat, but became a Republican in the 1950s. In 1962, he was elected to Congress from Tennessee's 3rd congressional district, based in Chattanooga. The 3rd had long been the only Democratic outpost in traditionally heavily Republican East Tennessee; indeed, Brock's victory ended 40 years of Democratic control in the district. Underlining the district's conservative bent, Brock was re-elected in 1964 by over nine points amid Lyndon B. Johnson's 44-state landslide. He was again re-elected in 1966 and 1968. During Brock's tenure in the House, he voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 but voted against the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.


United States Senator

Brock served four terms in the House and then won the Republican nomination to face three-term incumbent U.S. Senator Albert Gore Sr. in 1970, defeating
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
singer Tex Ritter in the primary. Brock's campaign successfully made an issue of Gore's friendship with the Kennedy family and Gore's voting record, which was liberal by Southern standards, and defeated him. While in the Senate, Brock was a darling of the conservative movement but was less popular at home; his personality was somewhat distant by the standards of most politicians. As a freshman U.S. senator, he accomplished a great deal even as a minority Republican. He was the original author of the Congressional Budget Act (S. 3984, 92nd Congress and S. 40, 93rd Congress) and as ranking minority of Committee on Government Operations, Subcommittee on Budgeting, Management, and Expenditures led the crafting of the Congressional Budget Bill. He sponsored credit legislation (Title V - Equal Credit Opportunity, H.R. 11211, 93rd Congress), memorialized by a
National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
exhibit, that provides woman's access to credit, including credit cards, by requiring financial institutions and other firms engaged in the extension of credit to make credit equally available to all and not to discriminate on the "basis of sex or marital status." He was co-chair of the Stevenson/Brock Committee (S. Res. 109, Temporary Select Committee to Study the Senate Committee System) with U.S. Senate member Adlai Stevenson III of
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
, which sponsored establishment of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee as well as workload, scheduling, and staffing reforms and importantly reorganization of committee jurisdictions. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee he promoted upgrading unemployment benefits, review of cash and non-cash benefits for low income, analysis of negative income tax experiments, transparency of markups, amendments to tax code, and introduced the first Senate tax indexing bill. Brock was a member of Paperwork Commission which according to Science's "Commission on Paperwork" editorial (September 23, 1977) issued 25 reports and 750 recommendations for cutting paperwork saving $3.5 million annually. He also drafted a 1975 resolution providing personal committee staffing for junior members (S. Res 60). In all, he worked closely with a broad coalition of Democrats and Republicans to bring those with widely ranging views together. That was appreciated by professional committee staff and members. His efforts contributed greatly to Congress's "Era of Cooperation" between 1971 and 1977 during which major reforms were accomplished including the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act of 1973, Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, and Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, all of which passed without opposition votes in the Senate. He was considered vulnerable in the 1976 election cycle, and several prominent Democrats ran in the 1976 Democratic Senate primary for the right to challenge him. The most prominent and best-known name, at least initially, was probably 1970 gubernatorial nominee John Jay Hooker; somewhat surprisingly to most observers, the winner of the primary was Jim Sasser, who had managed Gore Sr.'s 1970 reelection campaign. Sasser exploited lingering resentment of the
Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...
, which had concluded only about two years earlier. However his most effective campaign strategy was to emphasize how the affluent Brock, through skillful use of the tax code by his accountants, had paid less than $2,000 in
income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...
the previous year, an amount considerably less than that paid by many Tennesseans of far more modest means. Sasser was also aided by the popularity of the Democratic presidential candidate,
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
, in Tennessee; the former
Governor of Georgia The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's Georgia National Guard, National Guard, when not in federal service, and Georgia State Defense Force, State Defense Fo ...
who served from 1971 to 1975 would win the state by a double-digit margin. Although Brock had started with a 30-point lead in polls over Sasser, Brock lost his re-election bid by a 52% to 47% margin. Prior to his Senate re-election run, Brock was among those considered to replace Nelson Rockefeller as President
Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
's running mate in the 1976 election.


Later career

After leaving the Senate, Brock became the new chairman of the
Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the primary committee of the Republican Party of the United States. Its members are chosen by the state delegations at the national convention every four years. It is responsible for developing and pr ...
, a position he held from 1977 to 1981. Upon the election of
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
as U.S. president, Brock was appointed
United States Trade Representative The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government responsible for developing and promoting Foreign trade of the United States, United States ...
, a position he maintained until 1985, when he was made United States Secretary of Labor. Brock resigned his cabinet post in late 1987 to serve as the campaign manager for U.S. Senator of
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
Bob Dole Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Party leaders of the United States Senate, Republican Leader of th ...
's presidential campaign. Dole, the runner-up to Vice President
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
, was seen as a micromanager, who needed a strong personality like Brock to guide his campaign. Brock's late start, in the fall of 1987, left little time to help find an avenue to cut into Bush's substantial lead in national polls. Additionally, many viewed Brock as an imperious and inadequate manager, who badly misspent campaign funds largely on national headquarters staff and left Dole without adequate money for a Super Tuesday media buy. Dole and Brock had a public falling-out, and Brock publicly fired two of Dole's favored consultants and ordering them off the campaign plane. Dole dropped out of the race in late March 1988 after he had lost key primaries in New Hampshire, the South, and Illinois. Brock became a consultant in the Washington, D.C., area. By that point, he had become a legal resident of
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
. In 1994 he won the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Maryland over the future convict Ruthann Aron but was soundly defeated 59% to 41% in the
general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...
by the Democratic incumbent,
Paul Sarbanes Paul Spyros Sarbanes (; February 3, 1933 – December 6, 2020) was an American politician and attorney from Maryland. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served in both chambers of the United States Congr ...
. In 1990, Brock was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. Brock was a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.


Personal life

Brock married Laura Handly in 1957. They had four children and remained married until her death from cancer in 1985. He later married Sandra Schubert. Brock died from pneumonia in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the ...
, on March 25, 2021, at age 90.


References


External links

*
USDOL biography

e-archive biography

William Emerson Brock III Papers
, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brock, Bill 1930 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American Presbyterians Businesspeople in confectionery Candidates in the 1994 United States elections Deaths from pneumonia in Florida Maryland Republicans Politicians from Annapolis, Maryland Politicians from Chattanooga, Tennessee Military personnel from Chattanooga, Tennessee Presbyterians from Tennessee Reagan administration cabinet members Republican National Committee chairs Republican Party United States senators from Tennessee Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee United States Navy sailors United States secretaries of labor United States trade representatives Washington and Lee University alumni Members of Congress who became lobbyists 20th-century Tennessee politicians American people of Swiss descent 20th-century United States senators 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives