Senator, activist, Kennedy aide dies
He marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is credited with helping John F. Kennedy become president of the United States and co-founded the Peace Corps.
And in 1991, Harris Wofford became Pennsylvania’s first Democratic U.S. senator in a generation.
Mr. Wofford died late Monday at age 92 in a hospital from complications from a fall Saturday morning in his Washington home, according to his son Daniel.
Mr. Wofford served in the Senate from 1991 to 1995, having
been appointed by Gov. Robert Casey Sr. to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Sen. John Heinz and subsequently winning a special election to finish the term.
He was perhaps better known for what he did during a long career in public service before arriving in the Senate. He was a lifelong activist, world traveler and major booster for volunteerism.
In addition to co-founding Kennedy’s Peace Corps, he directed AmeriCorps under President Bill Clinton and helped establish the Martin Luther King Day of Service.
President Barack Obama recognized Mr. Wofford in 2012 with a Presidential Citizens Medal, the country’s top honor for civilian service.
Well before Mr. Wofford pursued elective office, the self-described “New Deal Democrat” was known as a civil rights activist who participated in the Rev. King’s 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. Mr. Wofford was among the first whites to graduate from Howard University Law School.
Working on Mr. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign, Mr. Wofford arranged a meeting between the candidate and the Rev. King. And when the Rev. King was arrested for participating in an Atlanta sit-in, Mr. Wofford advised that Mr. Kennedy call and offer comfort to the reverend’s wife, Coretta Scott King.
That call has been credited with helping to swing the election in Mr. Kennedy’s favor, after word of the gesture spread through black communities nationwide, helped by leaflets on blue paper that the campaign quietly distributed at Mr. Wofford’s direction.
Mr. Kennedy carried the African-American vote by an estimated 70 to 30 percent, a bigger margin than the party typically won at the time. Some polls had found Vice President Richard Nixon leading among black voters in 1960.
“It is thought by many that that one phone call started the transformation of the Democratic Party,” said James Carville, who was Mr. Wofford’s campaign strategist in 1991 and later for Bill Clinton’s campaign.
After the 1960 election, Mr. Wofford served as Mr. Kennedy’s special assistant on civil rights before leaving the White House to help Sargent Shriver, the president’s brother-in-law, found the Peace Corps.
He didn’t attempt his own bid for office until 1991. After Mr. Heinz died in a plane collision in Lower Merion, Mr. Casey appointed Mr. Wofford, the state secretary of labor and industry, to the seat after a 35-day search.
Acknowledging he hadn’t been the governor’s first choice, Mr. Wofford quipped to reporters that he may not have been the “first choice” of his wife, Clare, “but we’ve been going strong for 43 years.”
Republican Dick Thornburgh, the U.S. attorney general and former governor, began the race with a 44point lead in the polls. But Mr. Wofford won by tapping into the anger many in Pennsylvania felt about politicians in Washington during a recessionary time, Mr. Carville said.
Mr. Wofford made a national health care system the centerpiece of his campaign. He often cited a doctor who argued that if everyone accused of a crime is entitled to a lawyer, Americans should have access to doctors.
Mr. Wofford remained a close friend of the Casey family, recalled the governor’s son, Sen. Bob Casey. He said Mr. Wofford embodied the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.’s phrase, “the fierce urgency of now.”
When Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro was just starting out as a staffer on Capitol Hill in the 1990s, Mr. Wofford was always willing to offer guidance and support.
“What was unique about Harris is that he had strongly held beliefs that he was uncompromising on — civil rights being the most well-known,” Mr. Shapiro said.
Mr. Wofford ran unsuccessfully for re-election in 1994 against Republican Rick Santorum, an aggressive conservative who helped the GOP take control of the Senate (it also captured the House) in a midterm reaction against the Clinton administration’s first two years. Using the health care issue, Mr. Santorum portrayed his opponent as a relic of the 1960s big government era.
In 1970, Mr. Wofford became president of Bryn Mawr College, a position he held for eight years, and later became chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.