Lowell P. Weicker Jr.

Lowell Palmer Weicker, Jr. former United States Senator and Governor of Connecticut, died on June 28th, at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut following a short illness. It was 50 years to the date that he made the speech as a member of the Watergate Committee that propelled him to national attention.

Born May 16, 1931 in Paris, France to Mary Bickford and Lowell Palmer Weicker, he was raised largely in New York City where his family moved when he was 5 years old. He attended the Buckley School in Manhattan and graduated from the Lawrenceville School in Princeton, New Jersey. He then went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree from Yale University, served in the United States Army from 1953-1955 and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1958.

His mother, the daughter of a British general, remained a British citizen most of her life. She was an admirer of Franklin Roosevelt for his support of Great Britain during World War II and would ultimately register as a Democrat when she received her citizenship. She instilled in Lowell a deep commitment to loyalty. His father, a businessman, was the President of E.R. Squibb & Son. He left his position at the outset of World War II to serve in the U.S. Army’s Eighth Air Force in London and would later serve his country again as a minister to NATO. He raised Lowell to respect everyone and a have strong sense of honor and duty to country. “To whom much is given, much is expected” was the mantra which guided him in life.

He would ultimately settle and practice law in Greenwich, Connecticut, become First Selectman and represent Greenwich in the Connecticut General Assembly. In 1968, he was elected to represent Connecticut’s Fourth District in Congress.

In 1970, at the age of 39, Lowell was elected to the United States Senate where he received national prominence as a member of the Senate Watergate Committee and focused on the importance of constitutional law and the balance of power. He believed that Watergate was a “negative” exercise and, while he would continue to protect the Constitution from becoming “a dumping ground for every hot button issue”, he sought to move on to more positive and lasting legislative efforts. He became an advocate to protect the world’s oceans and promote marine research and he would become the author of most of today’s laws expanding the rights and liberties of children and people with disabilities culminating in his introduction of The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

Early on, he recognized the seriousness of the AIDS/HIV epidemic, held special hearings on the subject and would push through the Congress crucial funding to expand NIH research and CDC tracking and public education, over the opposition of an Administration who viewed it as a “lifestyle” problem.

He was unafraid to focus attention on intractable issues and was arrested for protesting apartheid outside the South African embassy. Later he and his friend, Senator Ted Kennedy, would cosponsor and pass economic sanctions legislation that ultimately brought change to that country and led to the election of Nelson Mandela. Then Governor, Lowell would be among those representing the United States at Mandela’s inauguration.

Throughout his Senate years, he would align himself with a bipartisan group of members and some unlikely allies. Among his colleagues, Barry Goldwater would join him in preventing a constitutional amendment permitting prayer in school. Lowell, whose great uncle was the Archbishop of Canterbury, would say that he didn’t want his grandchildren learning a generic “to whom it may concern” prayer. Orin Hatch, the conservative Senator from Utah, would join him in championing the ADA.

As Governor, he focused most of his attention on the fiscal crisis that faced Connecticut when he was elected and instituted the state’s income tax and massive cuts to the state budget averting a downgrade of Connecticut’s credit rating. While taking the heat for insisting on a fiscally responsible budget, he laid the ground work for decades of financial stability. He also would sign legislation controlling the sale of firearms and protecting the rights of women to an abortion, established school-based health clinics and acknowledged the persistent problem in education inequality driven by economic segregation.

After leaving public life he chaired a commission on public health for the Pew Charitable Trusts and would go on to be the founding President of the Trust for Public Health which advocates for a strong public health system that meets the needs of all citizens of the United States.

For his accomplishments he held honorary degrees from several universities Including Yale, Columbia and George Washington University. As an advocate for civil rights, he was the first Republican Senator invited to speak by the family of Dr. Martin Luther King at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He was honored with receipt of the Joseph P. Kennedy Award for his work on disability rights and he received the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his courage during the income tax crisis and the Albert Lasker Award for public service in the furtherance of biomedical research. The Lowell P. Weicker Marine Sciences Building sits on the campus of the University of Connecticut at Avery Point in Groton, Connecticut and on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, the building that houses AIDS/HIV and infectious disease research is named in his honor.

His Senate papers reside in the Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia and his Gubernatorial papers, by law, reside at the State Library in Hartford, Connecticut.

While Lowell will be remembered publicly for his accomplishments and lifetime of service, those who knew him best will remember him for his devotion to his large family and menagerie of dear friends. With the wingspan of an NBA center, Lowell was a lover of doubles tennis who dominated the net. His sense of wonder at this Blue Planet was forged on countless scuba diving trips in his beloved St. Croix with his sons, grandchildren and closest friends. And, he was never prouder than at seeing his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren assemble at his home in Old Lyme.

Lowell Weicker is survived by his wife of 38 years, Claudia Testa Weicker; his 5 sons: Scot, Gray, Brian, Sonny, and Tre; 2 stepsons: Mason and Andrew Ingram; 12 grandchildren; 4 great grandchildren and a sister, Mary Audrey Weicker Mellor, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

He will be greatly missed but has left an enduring legacy.

A funeral and memorial service is planned for Monday, July 10th at 10:30 a.m. at St. Barnabas Church in Greenwich, Connecticut. It will be followed by an interment at Putnam Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to either Special Olympics Connecticut https://www.soct.org/ways-give/individual-giving or the Lowell Weicker Memorial Fund at the Connecticut Audubon Society www.ctaudubon.org/weicker-memorial or mail checks to CT Audubon RTPEC, PO Box 62, Old Lyme, CT 06371.