John Heinz

John Heinz

Henry John Heinz III (October 23, 1938–April 4, 1991), an American politician from Pennsylvania, was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives (1971–1977) and the United States Senate (1977–1991).

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Heinz was the son of the eponymous Henry J. Heinz II, heir to the H. J. Heinz Company. Heinz graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1956 and Yale University in 1960. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1963. Then, Heinz served in the United States Air Force (1963) and United States Air Force Reserve (1963–1969).

From 1970 to 1971, Heinz was a member of the faculty at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University. His career as a businessman included positions as an analyst in the controller's division, and numerous positions in the marketing division of the H. J. Heinz Company.

In 1971, he was elected by special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Robert J. Corbett during the Ninety-second Congress. He was reelected to the Ninety-third and Ninety-fourth Congresses. He was elected to the Senate in 1976 and reelected in 1982 and 1988.

Heinz's initial election to the Senate was aided by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, Buckley v. Valeo, issued in mid-campaign, which invalidated the Congressionally placed restrictions on the spending of one's own personal funds. (Ironically, the attack he waged in winning election while Jimmy Carter was carrying Pennsylvania foreshadowed the campaign that Republicans would wage against his wife's second husband, John Kerry, in the Presidential campaign of 2004.) Heinz spent millions of dollars attacking Democratic nominee William J. Green, a young seven term Philadelphia Congressman and future Mayor of Philadelphia, as being soft on defense because he had voted against various defense appropriation bills in the Vietnam War era.

Heinz's Senate work was focused on retirement and the elderly, health care, international trade, finance and banking, environmental issues, human development and education. He was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (Ninety-sixth and Ninety-ninth Congresses) and a member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging (Ninety-seventh through Ninety-ninth Congresses).

Heinz and six other people were killed when a Bell 412 SP helicopter collided with the Senator's Piper Aerostar plane over a schoolyard in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. All aboard the two aircraft and two children playing outside the school were killed. The helicopter had been dispatched to check out a problem Heinz's plane was having with its landing gear. While moving in for a closer look, the helicopter's rotor blades struck the bottom of the plane, causing both aircraft to lose control and crash.

He was interred in the Heinz family mausoleum in Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

His widow, Teresa Heinz, is now married to Senator John Kerry, whom Senator Heinz had introduced her to at an Earth Day rally in 1990. The principal beneficiary of his estate, she has been extremely active in expanding his legacy through involved philanthropic leadership.

Several institutions bear his name, including:

• Senator H. John Heinz III Archives at the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries
• The H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management
• The H. John Heinz III Center For Science, Economics and The Environment
• The H. John Heinz III Center For the Performing Arts, home of the Pittsburgh Symphony

Further reading

• Heinz, H. John, III. "Foreign Takeover of U.S. Banking—a Real Danger?" Journal of the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies 4 (Autumn 1979): 1-9
• Heinz, John. U.S. Strategic Trade: An Export Control System for the 1990s. Boulder: Westview press, 1991.
• Heinz, John. U.S. Strategic Trade: An Export Control System for the 1990s. Boulder: Westview press, 1991.

External links

• Senator H. John Heinz III Archives
• The H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management
• The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment

Preceded by: Hugh D. Scott, Jr.

U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania 1977-1991

Succeeded by: Harris Wofford