Otis G. Pike

Otis Grey Pike (August 31, 1921 – January 20, 2014) was an American lawyer and politician who served nine terms as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1961 to 1979.

Early life

Pike was born in Riverhead, New York. He served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific as a Dive Bomber and Night Fighter pilot from 1942 until 1946. He graduated with an A.B. from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1943 after completing a senior thesis titled "American-Chinese Relations: Emphasizing the Years 1931-1941." He then received a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1948.

Public office

Pike was first elected to public office in the Town of Riverhead as a Justice of the Peace.

Tenure in Congress

Pike ran for Congress from the 1st Congressional District of New York in 1958, an election which he lost to incumbent Stuyvesant Wainwright. Two years later, in 1960, he ran again and this time narrowly defeated Wainwright. Pike represented New York's 1st congressional district from January 3, 1961, until January 3, 1979.

Pike was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and in the mid-1970s headed the Congressional Special Select Committee on Intelligence, the House version of the Senate Committee on Intelligence headed by Senator Frank Church. The House of Representatives voted 246–124 to direct that the Pike report not be released if not certified by the President not to contain classified information. However, the report was published by ''The Village Voice''. In his final years in Congress, Pike served on the Ways and Means Committee.

During his nine terms in Congress, he was a proponent of pro-environmental legislation including the creation of the Fire Island National Seashore on Long Island, which now includes the Otis G. Pike Wilderness Area. In early 1965, at a student meeting at Suffolk County Community College, he said that only revolution would result in a change of government in South Africa. At the same meeting, he also stated that "politicians keep their ear so close to the ground that an ant can jump in" referring to their ability to know what their constituents are thinking. He decided not to seek a 10th term in 1978 and retired from Congress in January 1979.

In September 1971 Pike put forward a bill that would have turned historic Gardiners Island, Cartwright Island, Gardiners Point Island, Hicks Island, and 1000 acres of the nearby shore of Long Island into a national monument.

As a member of congress Pike was generally in favor of military funding. He voted to end the Philadelphia Plan which provided for affirmative action in hiring practices of construction firms on government projects.

Pike Committee

After the Church Committee had begun its investigation, the Nedzi Committee was created, headed by Democratic Congressman Lucien N. Nedzi which dissolved only after a few months. Its successor was the Pike Committee, officially called the Select Committee on Intelligence which revealed more secret dealings of the US government. This was around the same time as the United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States, commonly called the Rockefeller Commission
{{R from move ...