William W. Scranton, a former governor of
Pennsylvania and one of the now extinct moderate national Republicans, would
have been 100 years old today. He died
in 2013. Scranton, a rising political star
less than two years into his governorship, unsuccessfully challenged Barry
Goldwater for the 1964 presidential nomination.
Scranton was young, attractive, wealthy and had an
appealing family. As a one-term
congressman, 1961-1963, he voted for some of JFK’s social programs. The same age as the president, he was sometimes
called a “Kennedy Republican.”
Prohibited by the then state constitution to one
term, Scranton left elective politics in 1967.
He subsequently served as chair of the commission investigating Kent
State and campus unrest in 1970, which issued the “Scranton Report,” and also
was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
I remember when he entertained United Nations delegates at his home near
Scranton, Pennsylvania. He also took on troubleshooting roles for
several presidents.
Although his bid
against Goldwater was doomed from the outset, he was probably the only serious presidential
aspirant from Pennsylvania in the past century.
Bill Scranton believed in public service and was committed to his
hometown, where his family had deep political and economic roots to the
northeastern Pennsylvania city that they helped found
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