John William Warner (born February 18, 1927) is an American statesman and politician, who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1972-1974 and has served as a Republican senator from Virginia since 1978.
Warner's public service began with his enlistment in the United States Navy in January 1945, in which he served until the following year and left as a Petty Officer 3rd Class. He attended Washington and Lee University, graduated in 1949, and entered the University of Virginia Law School.
He joined the United States Marine Corps in October 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, and served in Korea as a ground officer with the 1st Marine Air Wing . He continued in the Marine Corps Reserve after the war, eventually reaching the rank of captain.
After resuming his studies and graduating from Virginia, he became a law clerk in 1953 to Chief Judge E. Barrett Prettyman of the US Circuit Court of Appeals, then an assistant US attorney in 1956, and then entered private law practice in 1960.
In February 1969, he was appointed Under Secretary of the Navy by the Nixon administration, then on May 4, 1972, succeeded John H. Chafee as Secretary of the Navy. He participated in the Law of the Sea talks, and negotiated the Incidents at Sea Executive Agreement with the Soviet Union.
Warner married banking heiress Catherine Mellon , the granddaughter of billionaire Andrew Mellon, and their marriage ended in divorce in 1973. He married Elizabeth Taylor on December 4, 1976, and they divorced November 7, 1982. He married real estate agent Jeanne Vander Myde on December 15, 2003.
Warner entered electoral politics in the 1978 election, winning the Senate seat that he has held since. Committee memberships have included the Environment and Public Works Committee , the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions , and the Select Committee on Intelligence , and, most importantly, he is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He has used his position to ensure and enlarge the flow of billions of dollars into the Virginia economy each year via the state's naval installations and shipbuilding firms.
In 1994, John Warner campaigned against fellow Republican Oliver North in his campaign to unseat Virginia's Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb.
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|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
William L. Scott | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Virginia
1978- | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Incumbent
Last updated: 08-26-2005 18:51:13
