Newton Ivan Steers Jr. (January 13, 1917 – February 11, 1993), was a U.S. Congressman who represented Maryland's 8th congressional district from January 3, 1977, to January 3, 1979.

Early life

Newton Ivan Steers Jr. was born on January 13, 1917, in

Glen Ridge, New Jersey Glen Ridge is a borough in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough’s population was 7,802, reflecting an increase of 275 (+3.7%) from the 2010 census count of 7,527,

, to Newton Steers Sr. and Claire L. Steers. His father was president of the DuPont Film Manufacturing Corporation for seventeen years. Steers was the youngest of five children born to his parents: Helen Steers, who married George Van Trump Burgess, Charlotte Steers, who married Paul Van Winkle, Mrs. W. Breckinridge De Riemer, and Margaret Steers, who married L. H. Brague Jr. Steers attended the

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = , subdivis ...

, public schools. He graduated from the

Hotchkiss School The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization. It is also a former member of the G30 Schools ...

Lakeville, Connecticut Lakeville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States, close to Dutchess County, New York. It is within the town of Salisbury, but has its own ZIP Code (06039). As of the 2010 census, the population of Lak ...

, in 1935, and received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

in 1939. He obtained a Certificate of Advanced

Meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

in 1943, and his J.D. degree from the

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & World ...

in 1948.

Career

Steers was admitted to the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

bar (1958), and later to the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle (Washington, D.C.), Logan Circle, Jefferson Memoria ...

bar (1967), and worked with the

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

company from 1939 to 1941. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he served in

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

from 1941 to 1946. After the war, he worked with GAF Corp. from 1948 to 1951, and the

United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...

from 1951 to 1953. He also became president of several investment companies in New York from 1953 through 1965. Steers was said to have made his fortune during the 1950s through investing in

mutual funds A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV ...

, forming the Atomic Development Mutual Fund in 1953 with a group of friends. The fund specialized in "securities of companies participating in activities resulting from the natural sciences."

Political career

In 1962, Steers entered politics and was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1962 to the

88th Congress The 88th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 196 ...

. He served as Maryland Republican State chairman from 1964 to 1966. In 1967, Gov.

Spiro T. Agnew Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second vice president to resign the position, the other being John ...

appointed Steers the Maryland State insurance commissioner, which remained until 1970. In 1970, Steers became Maryland Assistant Secretary of Licensing and Regulation and a member of the

Maryland State Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single-m ...

, serving from 1971 to 1977. He served as a delegate to the

Republican National Convention The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

and

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. In 1976, Steers was elected as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

to the

95th Congress The 95th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1977, ...

over Democrat Lanny Davis and independent

Robin Ficker Robin Ficker (born April 5, 1943) is an American disbarred attorney, real estate broker, former state legislator, political activist, sports heckler, and perennial political candidate. Ficker ran unsuccessfully for Montgomery County Executive i ...

, serving from January 3, 1977, until January 3, 1979. He ran for reelection in 1978 to the

96th Congress The 96th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 197 ...

and lost to Democrat

Michael D. Barnes Michael Darr Barnes (born September 3, 1943) is an American lawyer and politician who represented the eighth district of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1987. Early life Born in Washington, D.C. to John P. Ba ...

, and unsuccessfully challenged Barnes in 1980. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for election as

Lieutenant Governor of Maryland The lieutenant governor of Maryland is the second highest-ranking official in the executive branch of the state government of Maryland in the United States. The officeholder is elected on the same ticket as the governor of Maryland and must meet ...

in 1982, losing to Democrat J. Joseph Curran, Jr. Steers was a resident of

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which ...

, until his death there in 1993.

Personal life

In 1957, Steers married Nina Gore Auchincloss (born 1937), the daughter of

Hugh D. Auchincloss Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Jr. (August 15, 1897 – November 20, 1976) was an American stockbroker and lawyer who became the second husband of Nina S. Gore, mother of Gore Vidal, and also the second husband of Janet Lee Bouvier, the mother of Firs ...

(1897-1976) and Nina S. Gore (1903–1978). Nina S. Gore had previously been married to

Eugene Vidal Eugene Luther "Gene" Vidal (; April 13, 1895 – February 20, 1969) was an American commercial aviation pioneer, New Deal official, inventor, and Sportsperson, athlete. He was the father of author Gore Vidal. For eight years, from 1929 to 1937 ...

, with whom she had one child, the writer

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

, Nina Gore Auchincloss's half-brother. Hugh D. Auchincloss later married Janet Lee Bouvier, the mother of

Jacqueline Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A p ...

, who became a stepsister to Nina Gore Auchincloss. Kennedy was matron of honor at the wedding and then-Sen. John F. Kennedy was one of the groomsmen. Together, Steers and Nina Gore Auchincloss had three children: * Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1962–1995), a painter who died of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

related complications * Ivan Steers * Burr Gore Steers (born 1965), a writer and filmmakerFilm; A Family's Legacy: Pain and Humor (and a Movie)
, ''The New York Times'', September 15, 2002. Steers and Auchincloss were divorced in 1974. In 1978, he married Inge Gabriele (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Wirsich) Irwin, who he remained married to until his death. Inge had a son, Kristof Andreas Irwin, from a previous marriage who became Steers's stepson. Steers died on February 11, 1993, at his home in

after a long battle with cancer.

References

External links

Newton I. Steers papers
at the

University of Maryland libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an o ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steers, Newton 1917 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American politicians United States Army personnel of World War II Auchincloss family DuPont people Republican Party Maryland state senators People from Bethesda, Maryland People from Glen Ridge, New Jersey People from White Plains, New York Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Military personnel from New Jersey Yale Law School alumni United States Army Air Forces soldiers Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland