Edwin Jacob "Jake" Garn (born October 12, 1932) is an American politician and member of the
Republican Party who served as a
United States senator
The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...
representing
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
from 1974 to 1993. Garn became the first sitting member of
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
to fly in space when he flew aboard the
Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' as a
payload specialist during
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
mission
STS-51-D
STS-51-D was the 16th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the fourth flight of Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The launch of STS-51-D from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, on April 12, 1985, was delayed by 55 minutes, after a boat st ...
(April 12–19, 1985).
Prior to his time in Congress, he served as the mayor of Salt Lake City.
Early life and education
The son of a
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
pilot, Garn was born in
Richfield, Utah
Richfield is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Utah, United States, and is the largest city in southern-central Utah.
Description
As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,551. It lies in the Mormon Corridor, just off I ...
. Garn also attended
East High School, Clayton Middle School, and Uintah Elementary School. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business and finance from the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
in 1955 and was a member of the
Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...
fraternity.
Career
Senator Garn is a former insurance executive. He served in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
as a
Martin P5M Marlin
The Martin P5M Marlin (P-5 Marlin after 1962), built by the Glenn L. Martin Company of Middle River, Maryland, was a twin piston-engined flying boat that entered service in 1951, and served into the late 1960s with the United States Navy perfo ...
pilot. He also served as a pilot of the
151st Air Refueling Group of the
Utah Air National Guard
The Utah Air National Guard (UT ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Utah, USA. Along with the Utah Army National Guard it is an element of the Utah National Guard.
As state militia units, the units in the Utah Air National Guard are not in ...
, where he flew the
Boeing KC-97L and
KC-135A
The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It is the predominant variant of the C-135 Stratolifter family of transpo ...
. He retired as a colonel in April 1979. He was promoted to brigadier general after his Space Shuttle mission. He had flown 17,000 hours in military aircraft when he flew in space.
Before his election to the Senate, Garn served on the
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
commission for four years and was elected as the
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
in 1971, entering office in 1972. He was the last Republican to hold that office to date. Garn was active in the
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
League of Cities and Towns and served as its president in 1972. In 1974, Garn was the first vice-president of the
National League of Cities
The National League of Cities (NLC) is an advocacy organization in the United States that represents the country's 19,495 cities, towns, and villages along with 49 state municipal leagues. Created in 1924, it has evolved into a leading membership ...
, and he served as its honorary president in 1975.
Garn was first elected to the Senate in 1974, succeeding retiring Republican
Wallace Bennett, father of later Senator (and his eventual successor)
Robert Bennett. Garn was re-elected to a second term in November 1980 with 74 percent of the vote, the largest victory in a statewide race in Utah history. Garn was re-elected a second time in 1986.
Though strongly
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
on the issue of abortion, Garn joined
U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
Henry Hyde
Henry John Hyde (April 18, 1924 – November 29, 2007) was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2007, representing the 6th District of Illinois, an area of Chicago's ...
of
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
in resigning from the board of the
United States Pro-Life Political Action Committee when the executive director of the organization, Peter Gemma, issued a "hit list" to target certain lawmakers who supported abortion rights. Garn and Hyde, the author of the
Hyde Amendment
In U.S. politics, the Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, except to save the life of the woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape. Before the Hyde Amendment took effect in ...
, which limited abortions financed by
Medicaid
Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...
, said that "hit lists" are counterproductive because they create irrevocable discord among legislators, any of whom can be subject to a "single issue" attack of this kind by one
interest group
Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...
or another. Gemma said that he was surprised by the withdrawal of Garn and Hyde from the PAC committee but continued with plans to spend $650,000 for the 1982 elections on behalf of anti-abortion candidates.
Garn was chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and served on three subcommittees: Housing and Urban Affairs, Financial Institutions, and International Finance and Monetary Policy. He also was a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and served as chairman of the HUD-Independent Agencies Subcommittee. He served on four other Appropriations subcommittees: Energy and Water Resources, Defense, Military Construction, and Interior. Garn served as a member of the Republican leadership from 1979 to 1984 as secretary of the Republican Conference.
His Institute of Finance has been called a "hot tub of influence peddling".
Garn retired from the Senate in 1992. He is a supporter of the
National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
MD, NJ, IL, HI, WA, MA, DC, VT, CA, RI, NY, CT, CO, DE, NM, OR
MI, PA, TX
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is a proposed interstate compact among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award a ...
.
Savings and loan
As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Garn was co-author of the
Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act
The Garn–St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 (, , enacted October 15, 1982) is an Act of Congress that deregulated savings and loan associations and allowed banks to provide adjustable-rate mortgage loans. It is disputed whether the a ...
of 1982, the law that partially deregulated the savings and loan industry and attempted to forestall the looming
Savings and Loan crisis.
Spaceflight
Garn asked to fly on the Space Shuttle because he was head of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that dealt with NASA, and had extensive aviation experience. He had previously flown a
B-2 Spirit
The Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses. A subsonic flying ...
prototype and driven a new Army tank.
He began publicly asking NASA about flying on the Shuttle in 1981, and the agency had long planned to fly "citizen passengers" such as artists, journalists, entertainers, and the
Teacher in Space Project
The Teacher in Space Project (TISP) was a NASA program announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 designed to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration. The project would carry teachers into space ...
, but the November 1984 announcement that a member of Congress would go to space surprised most observers. Garn said that flying on the Shuttle would be a fact-finding trip: "I do really think that it is a necessity that Congressmen check things out that they vote for and make certain that funds are being spent adequately. It might be necessary to have a Senator kick the tire".
STS-51-D
STS-51-D was the 16th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the fourth flight of Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The launch of STS-51-D from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, on April 12, 1985, was delayed by 55 minutes, after a boat st ...
was launched from and returned to land at the
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
, Florida. Its primary objective was to deploy two communications satellites, and to perform
electrophoresis
Electrophoresis, from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, "amber") and φόρησις (phórēsis, "the act of bearing"), is the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric fie ...
and echocardiograph operations in space in addition to a number of other experiments. As a
payload specialist, Garn's role on the mission was as a congressional observer and as a subject for medical experiments on
space motion sickness
Space adaptation syndrome (SAS) or space sickness is a condition experienced by as many as half of all space travelers during their adaptation to weightlessness once in orbit. It is the opposite of terrestrial motion sickness since it occurs when ...
.
At the conclusion of the mission, Garn had traveled over in 108 Earth orbits, logging over 167 hours in space.
The space sickness Garn experienced during the journey was so severe that a scale for space sickness was jokingly based on him, where "one Garn" is the highest possible level of sickness. Some NASA astronauts who opposed the payload specialist program, such as
Mike Mullane
Richard Michael Mullane (born September 10, 1945; Col, USAF, Ret.) is an engineer and Weapon Systems Officer, a retired USAF officer, and a former NASA astronaut. During his career, he flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-D, STS-27, and STS ...
, believed that Garn's space sickness was evidence of the inappropriateness of flying people with little training. Garn was in excellent physical condition, however, and began flying at the age of 16. Astronaut
Charles F. Bolden
Charles Frank Bolden Jr. (born August 19, 1946) is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions.
He graduated from the United States Naval ...
described Garn as "the ideal candidate to do it, because he was a veteran Navy combat pilot who had more flight hours than anyone in the Astronaut Office".
Fellow 51-D payload specialist
Charles D. Walker—who also suffered from space sickness on the flight despite having flown before—stated that:
The Jake Garn Mission Simulator and Training Facility, NASA's prime training facility for astronauts in the Shuttle and Space Station programs, is named after him.
Upon his return, he co-wrote the 1989 novel ''
Night Launch''. The book centers around
terrorists
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
taking control of the
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...
''
Discovery
Discovery may refer to:
* Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown
* Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown
* Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence
Discovery, The Discovery ...
'' during the first NASA–USSR Space Shuttle flight.
Personal life
Garn married Hazel Rhae Thompson in 1957.
["Edwin Jacob Garn." ''Contemporary Authors Online.'' Detroit: Gale, 2001. ''Gale Biography In Context''. Retrieved July 11, 2011.] Together, they had four children: Jacob, Susan, Ellen, and Jeffrey.
Hazel died in an automobile accident in 1976.
In 1977, Garn married Kathleen Brewerton, who had a son, Brook, from a previous marriage.
Jake and Kathleen had two children together, Matthew and Jennifer.
Kathleen died on May 31, 2018. He is a member of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
.
In 1986, Garn donated a kidney to his 27-year-old daughter, Susan, who was experiencing progressive kidney failure as a result of
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
.
["Senate: A Father's Special Gift, ''Time'', September 22, 1986]
References
External links
*
Spacefacts biography of Jake Garn*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Garn, Jake
1932 births
American astronauts
American astronaut-politicians
Latter Day Saints from Utah
Living people
Mayors of Salt Lake City
United States Air Force generals
United States Navy officers
Republican Party United States senators from Utah
David Eccles School of Business alumni
Utah Republicans
Organ transplant donors
People from Richfield, Utah
Space Shuttle program astronauts