Stewart John Greenleaf Sr. (October 4, 1939 – February 9, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the

Pennsylvania State Senate The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered ev ...

from 1979 to 2019. Greenleaf represented the 12th District, which includes portions of eastern Montgomery County and southern

Bucks County Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...

Early life and education

Greenleaf is a 1961 graduate of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and received his J.D. from the

University of Toledo College of Law The University of Toledo College of Law is the law school at the University of Toledo, and is located on the university's main campus in a residential neighborhood in western Toledo, Ohio. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Assoc ...

Career

He served as an assistant district attorney in Montgomery County from 1970 to 1977 and as an assistant public defender in Bucks County. In 1971, Greenleaf was elected as a Commissioner for his hometown of

Upper Moreland Township, Pennsylvania Upper Moreland Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The population was 24,015 at the 2010 census. Upper Moreland Township is primarily a residential community with distinctive neighborhoods that are complemented by several ...

. After one term, Greenleaf was elected to a seat in the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

in 1976. He served a single term in the house before winning his bid for the State Senate in 1978. He was reelected seven times. Greenleaf considered a run for

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

in 1993, briefly forming an exploratory committee to challenge

Marjorie Margolies Marjorie Margolies (; formerly Margolies-Mezvinsky; born June 21, 1942) is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, and a women's rights activist. She ...

. However, he dropped out before the county endorsement convention. In 2000, Greenleaf ran for Congress against incumbent

Joe Hoeffel Joseph Merrill Hoeffel III ( ; born September 3, 1950) is an American author and politician. A Democrat, Hoeffel was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005, representing Pennsylvania's 13th congressional distri ...

. Greenleaf had represented much of the eastern portion of the congressional district for almost a quarter-century. Ultimately, Hoeffel won the race with nearly 53% of the vote to Greenleaf's 46%. Greenleaf did not have to give up his state senate seat to run for Congress; Pennsylvania state senators serve staggered four-year terms, and Greenleaf was not up for reelection until 2002. In his last term, Greenleaf was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and served on the Appropriations, Banking & Insurance, Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure and Environmental Resources & Energy Committees. Greenleaf chose not to run for re-election in 2018. He endorsed his son, former Montgomery County controller Stewart Greenleaf Jr., as his successor. However, Stewart Jr. was defeated by Democratic challenger Maria Collett. Greenleaf continued to serve as a partner in his law firm, Elliott Greenleaf, whose attorneys include Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor and former State Rep.

Melissa Murphy Weber Melissa Murphy Weber (born September 26, 1969) is an American attorney and Pennsylvania politician. Weber graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School in 1987. She graduated with a degree in economics from Denison University in 1991. While att ...

2012 presidential election

Greenleaf signed up to be on the presidential ballot for the Republican Party's

New Hampshire primary The New Hampshire presidential primary is the first in a series of nationwide party primary elections and the second party contest (the first being the Iowa caucuses) held in the United States every four years as part of the process of choosi ...

. He explained that he did so to focus the debate of the election on the balancing of the federal budget. He filed with the FEC on December 29, and received a total of 24 votes in the primary, 21st place amongst ballot candidates. He won four write-in votes in the Democratic primary, all of which he received in

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

. Including other write-ins, this tied him with

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

for third place in the town, behind only

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

and

Ron Paul Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, physician and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1979 to 1985, as well ...

Death

Greenleaf died at Holy Redeemer Hospital in

Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania Meadowbrook is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is located within Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Abington Township. Administration The com ...

, on February 9, 2021, at age 81.

References

External links

Pennsylvania State Senate - Stewart Greenleaf
official PA Senate website
Greenleaf for Senate
official campaign website

presidential campaign website (archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenleaf, Stewart 1939 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American politicians Candidates in the 2012 United States presidential election Republican Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Pennsylvania lawyers Republican Party Pennsylvania state senators People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Public defenders University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Toledo College of Law alumni