Charles H. Percy
Encyclopedia
Charles Harting "Chuck" Percy (September 27, 1919 – September 17, 2011) was president of the Bell & Howell Corporation
from 1949 to 1964. He was elected United States Senator
from Illinois
in 1966, re-elected through his term ending in 1985; he concentrated on business and foreign relations. He was a member of the Republican Party
.
, the seat of Escambia County
in far northwestern Florida
, the son of Edward H. Percy and the former Elisabeth Harting. His father, an Alabama
native, was an automobile salesman or bank cashier. His Illinois-born mother was a concert violinist
. Edward H. Percy was a son of Charles Brown Percy and Helen Leila Herndon, from the powerful Herndon family of Virginia. Elizabeth Harting was a daughter of Phineas Fredrick Harting and Belle Aschenbach.
The family moved to Chicago when Percy was an infant. As a child, he was notable for his entrepreneurial energy, and often held several jobs while attending school. In the mid-1930s, his pluck brought him to the attention of his Sunday school
teacher, Joseph McNabb, the president of Bell & Howell, then a small camera
company.
Percy completed high school at New Trier High School
. He entered the University of Chicago
on a half tuition scholarship. He completed his degree in economics
in 1941.
. Percy served three years in the United States Navy
during World War II
and returned to the company in 1945.
After Joseph McNabb died in 1949, Percy was made the president
of Bell & Howell. In 1949, the Jaycees named Percy one of the "Outstanding Young Men in America", along with Gerald R. Ford, Jr., of Michigan
(future U.S. President) and John Ben Shepperd
(future Texas Attorney General
.)
During his more than two-decade leadership of Bell & Howell, Percy led the company through years of expansion, with a 32-fold increase in company sales, a 12-fold increase in employees, and taking the company public, with a listing for stock sales on the New York Stock Exchange
. While continuing to make a variety of movie cameras for military, commercial and home use; and movie and sound projectors, in the late 1940s, the company branched into the production of microfilm. Later it entered the information services markets as well.
, Percy helped to write Decisions for a Better America, which proposed a set of long-range goals for the Republican Party. He was considered to be a liberal
Republican, among a group from the Northeast and Midwest
.
Percy first entered electoral politics with a run for governor
in 1964, which he narrowly lost to Democratic
incumbent Otto Kerner
. During his gubernatorial campaign, Percy reluctantly endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater
, his future Senate colleague, who fared poorly in Illinois.
from Illinois; he upset the Democratic senator Paul Douglas
(a former professor of Percy's at the University of Chicago) with 56 percent of the vote. During that campaign, Percy's 21-year-old daughter Valerie was murdered at the family home under mysterious circumstances, apparently by an intruder. He suspended the campaign for two weeks. Valerie Percy's murder has never been solved, despite a long investigation. Following the murder, CBS
postponed, and eventually canceled, its planned airing of the Alfred Hitchcock
film Psycho
.
In 1967, Senator Percy introduced a bill to establish a program to stimulate production of low-cost housing
. Percy's proposal was the first of its kind to provide home ownership to low-income families, and it received strong support from Republicans in both the House and the Senate. When asked why he selected housing for his first major legislative proposal, Percy said: "Of all the problems I ran across during three years of campaigning, first for the governorship and then for the Senate, the most appalling in their consequences for the future seemed to be the problems of the declining areas of the city and countryside, the inadequacy of housing."
In 1978, as Percy was completing his second term, he appeared invincible. Percy was considered so strong that the Democratic party was unable to persuade any serious candidates to challenge him. Emerging from the Democratic primary was the dark horse
candidate, Alex Seith
, who had never before sought elected office but had served as an appointee on the Cook County
Zoning Board of Appeals for twelve years, nine as chairman.
But at that time, Percy's reputation as a Rockefeller Republican
, contrasted with Seith's ostensible hard-line foreign policy
positions, combined to make Percy suddenly vulnerable in the weeks before the election. Sensing his improbable loss, Percy went on television days before the polling and, with tear-filled eyes, pleaded with Illinois voters to give him another chance. He said, "I got your message and you're right . . . I'm sure that I've made my share of mistakes, but your priorities are mine." He won re-election by a 54% to 46% margin.
Percy served in the Senate until 1985, when he was narrowly defeated for re-election in 1984
by the liberal Congressman Paul Simon
In 2006, in writing about the influence of political lobbies on the U.S. relationship with Israel
, political theorists John Mearsheimer
and Stephen Walt
wrote that they believed Percy's loss resulted from the campaign waged against him by the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC). The lobbying group controlled substantial monies and helped lawmakers who they believed supported the security of Israel. Earlier that year, Percy had supported the cause of Karl Linnas
, a concentration camp commander who was to be deported back to Estonia, having lied in the papers he used to enter the United States. Linnas had ordered, and participated in, the murders of Jews and other prisoners.
While in the Senate, Percy was active in the areas of business and international affairs. Although he explored the possibility of running for President in 1968 and 1976, he did not run either time. During the early 1970s, he clashed with the policies of President Nixon and criticized the U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War
.
In 1977, Percy and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey - responding to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and high energy prices in general - created the Alliance to Save Energy
to encourage a national commitment to energy efficiency. Sen. Percy was the founding chairman of the organization.
Perhaps Percy's most important act, and his longest-lasting legacy, was ending the practice of nominating federal judges
from the Chicago political machine. He implemented a system of consultation with, and advice from, several groups, including the professional bar association, which was considered novel at the time. One of his nominees, John Paul Stevens
, was selected by Gerald Ford as a justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Percy said of the Autobiography of Malcolm X, that "Every white person should read it."
. During World War II, Percy married Jeanne Dickerson. They had twin daughters, Valerie and Sharon
(born 1944), and a son Roger (born 1947). Jeanne died in 1947, of a violent reaction to drugs after a seemingly simple and successful operation. In 1950, Percy married Loraine Guyer. Their children were Gail (born 1953) and Mark (born 1955).
About a year after the murder of her twin sister Valerie, in 1966, Sharon Percy married John D. Rockefeller IV
, who was later elected to two terms (1977-1985) as the Democratic Governor of West Virginia and has been a United States Senator from that state since 1985.
He remained after leaving political office, but suffered from Alzheimer's disease
in his later years.
He died on September 17, 2011 at the Washington Home and Community Hospice in Washington, D.C.
.
Böwe Bell & Howell
Bell & Howell is a U.S.-based former manufacturer of motion picture machinery, founded as Bell & Howell in 1907 by two projectionists, and headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company merged with Böwe Systec Inc...
from 1949 to 1964. He was elected United States Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
in 1966, re-elected through his term ending in 1985; he concentrated on business and foreign relations. He was a member of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
.
Early life and education
Charles Harting Percy was born in PensacolaPensacola, Florida
Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...
, the seat of Escambia County
Escambia County, Florida
Escambia County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Florida. The 2010 population was 297,619. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 296,772. Its county seat is Pensacola.- History :...
in far northwestern Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, the son of Edward H. Percy and the former Elisabeth Harting. His father, an Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
native, was an automobile salesman or bank cashier. His Illinois-born mother was a concert violinist
Violinist
Violinist may refer to:*A person who plays the violin**List of violinists*Violinist *The Violinist, by Chagall...
. Edward H. Percy was a son of Charles Brown Percy and Helen Leila Herndon, from the powerful Herndon family of Virginia. Elizabeth Harting was a daughter of Phineas Fredrick Harting and Belle Aschenbach.
The family moved to Chicago when Percy was an infant. As a child, he was notable for his entrepreneurial energy, and often held several jobs while attending school. In the mid-1930s, his pluck brought him to the attention of his Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
teacher, Joseph McNabb, the president of Bell & Howell, then a small camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
company.
Percy completed high school at New Trier High School
New Trier High School
New Trier High School is a public four-year high school , with its major campus located in Winnetka, Illinois, USA, and a second campus in Northfield, Illinois, with freshman classes and district administration...
. He entered the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
on a half tuition scholarship. He completed his degree in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
in 1941.
Career
Percy started at Bell & Howell in 1938 as an apprentice and sales trainee. In 1939 he worked at Crowell Collier. He went to work full time for Bell & Howell in 1941, after college. Within a year he was appointed a director of the companyBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
. Percy served three years in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and returned to the company in 1945.
After Joseph McNabb died in 1949, Percy was made the president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
of Bell & Howell. In 1949, the Jaycees named Percy one of the "Outstanding Young Men in America", along with Gerald R. Ford, Jr., of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
(future U.S. President) and John Ben Shepperd
John Ben Shepperd
John Ben Shepperd was the segregationist Texas attorney general from 1953–1957 who led resistance to the desegregation of public schools mandated by the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka...
(future Texas Attorney General
Texas Attorney General
The Texas Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Texas.The department has offices at the William P. Clements State Office Building at 300 West 15th Street in Austin.-History:...
.)
During his more than two-decade leadership of Bell & Howell, Percy led the company through years of expansion, with a 32-fold increase in company sales, a 12-fold increase in employees, and taking the company public, with a listing for stock sales on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
. While continuing to make a variety of movie cameras for military, commercial and home use; and movie and sound projectors, in the late 1940s, the company branched into the production of microfilm. Later it entered the information services markets as well.
Political career
In the late 1950s, Percy decided to enter politics. With the encouragement of then U.S. President Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, Percy helped to write Decisions for a Better America, which proposed a set of long-range goals for the Republican Party. He was considered to be a liberal
Rockefeller Republican
Rockefeller Republican refers to a faction of the United States Republican Party who held moderate to liberal views similar to those of Nelson Rockefeller...
Republican, among a group from the Northeast and Midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
.
Percy first entered electoral politics with a run for governor
Governor of Illinois
The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....
in 1964, which he narrowly lost to Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
incumbent Otto Kerner
Otto Kerner, Jr.
Otto Kerner, Jr. was the 33rd Governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968. He is best known for chairing the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and for accepting bribes....
. During his gubernatorial campaign, Percy reluctantly endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
, his future Senate colleague, who fared poorly in Illinois.
U.S. Senate
In 1966, Percy ran for senatorUnited States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Illinois; he upset the Democratic senator Paul Douglas
Paul Douglas
Paul Howard Douglas was an liberal American politician and University of Chicago economist. A war hero, he was elected as a Democratic U.S. Senator from Illinois from in the 1948 landslide, serving until his defeat in 1966...
(a former professor of Percy's at the University of Chicago) with 56 percent of the vote. During that campaign, Percy's 21-year-old daughter Valerie was murdered at the family home under mysterious circumstances, apparently by an intruder. He suspended the campaign for two weeks. Valerie Percy's murder has never been solved, despite a long investigation. Following the murder, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
postponed, and eventually canceled, its planned airing of the Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
film Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
.
In 1967, Senator Percy introduced a bill to establish a program to stimulate production of low-cost housing
Low-cost housing
Low-cost housing may refer to:*Affordable housing*Subsidized housing*Low cost housing in Pakistan...
. Percy's proposal was the first of its kind to provide home ownership to low-income families, and it received strong support from Republicans in both the House and the Senate. When asked why he selected housing for his first major legislative proposal, Percy said: "Of all the problems I ran across during three years of campaigning, first for the governorship and then for the Senate, the most appalling in their consequences for the future seemed to be the problems of the declining areas of the city and countryside, the inadequacy of housing."
In 1978, as Percy was completing his second term, he appeared invincible. Percy was considered so strong that the Democratic party was unable to persuade any serious candidates to challenge him. Emerging from the Democratic primary was the dark horse
Dark horse
Dark horse is a term used to describe a little-known person or thing that emerges to prominence, especially in a competition of some sort.-Origin:The term began as horse racing parlance...
candidate, Alex Seith
Alex Seith
Alex Seith was the 1978 Democratic nominee for the United States Senate from Illinois. A complete newcomer to electoral politics, he nearly pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Senate history when he narrowly lost to nationally renowned incumbent Republican Charles Percy by eight percentage...
, who had never before sought elected office but had served as an appointee on the Cook County
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...
Zoning Board of Appeals for twelve years, nine as chairman.
But at that time, Percy's reputation as a Rockefeller Republican
Rockefeller Republican
Rockefeller Republican refers to a faction of the United States Republican Party who held moderate to liberal views similar to those of Nelson Rockefeller...
, contrasted with Seith's ostensible hard-line foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
positions, combined to make Percy suddenly vulnerable in the weeks before the election. Sensing his improbable loss, Percy went on television days before the polling and, with tear-filled eyes, pleaded with Illinois voters to give him another chance. He said, "I got your message and you're right . . . I'm sure that I've made my share of mistakes, but your priorities are mine." He won re-election by a 54% to 46% margin.
Percy served in the Senate until 1985, when he was narrowly defeated for re-election in 1984
United States Senate elections, 1984
The 1984 elections to the United States Senate coincided with the landslide re-election of President Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election...
by the liberal Congressman Paul Simon
Paul Simon (politician)
Paul Martin Simon was an American politician from Illinois. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985 and United States Senate from 1985 to 1997. He was a member of the Democratic Party...
In 2006, in writing about the influence of political lobbies on the U.S. relationship with Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, political theorists John Mearsheimer
John Mearsheimer
John J. Mearsheimer is an American professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is an international relations theorist. Known for his book on offensive realism, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, more recently Mearsheimer has attracted attention for co-authoring and publishing...
and Stephen Walt
Stephen Walt
Stephen Martin Walt is a professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Among his most prominent works are and . He coauthored The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy with John Mearsheimer.-Education and career:In 1983, he received a Ph.D. in...
wrote that they believed Percy's loss resulted from the campaign waged against him by the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee
American Israel Public Affairs Committee
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States...
(AIPAC). The lobbying group controlled substantial monies and helped lawmakers who they believed supported the security of Israel. Earlier that year, Percy had supported the cause of Karl Linnas
Karl Linnas
Karl Linnas was an Estonian who was sentenced to capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia in 1961. He was later deported from the United States to the Soviet Union...
, a concentration camp commander who was to be deported back to Estonia, having lied in the papers he used to enter the United States. Linnas had ordered, and participated in, the murders of Jews and other prisoners.
While in the Senate, Percy was active in the areas of business and international affairs. Although he explored the possibility of running for President in 1968 and 1976, he did not run either time. During the early 1970s, he clashed with the policies of President Nixon and criticized the U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
In 1977, Percy and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey - responding to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and high energy prices in general - created the Alliance to Save Energy
Alliance to Save Energy
The Alliance to Save Energy is a coalition consisting largely of industrial, technological, and energy corporations. The Alliance states that its mission is to "support energy efficiency as a cost-effective energy resource under existing market conditions and advocate energy-efficiency policies...
to encourage a national commitment to energy efficiency. Sen. Percy was the founding chairman of the organization.
Perhaps Percy's most important act, and his longest-lasting legacy, was ending the practice of nominating federal judges
United States federal judge
In the United States, the title of federal judge usually means a judge appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate in accordance with Article II of the United States Constitution....
from the Chicago political machine. He implemented a system of consultation with, and advice from, several groups, including the professional bar association, which was considered novel at the time. One of his nominees, John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from December 19, 1975 until his retirement on June 29, 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the oldest member of the Court and the third-longest serving justice in the Court's history...
, was selected by Gerald Ford as a justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Percy said of the Autobiography of Malcolm X, that "Every white person should read it."
Marriage and family
Percy was a Christian ScientistChristian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...
. During World War II, Percy married Jeanne Dickerson. They had twin daughters, Valerie and Sharon
Sharon Percy Rockefeller
Sharon Percy Rockefeller is the wife of former Governor of West Virginia and current U.S. Senator John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and served as that state's First Lady from 1977 to 1985....
(born 1944), and a son Roger (born 1947). Jeanne died in 1947, of a violent reaction to drugs after a seemingly simple and successful operation. In 1950, Percy married Loraine Guyer. Their children were Gail (born 1953) and Mark (born 1955).
About a year after the murder of her twin sister Valerie, in 1966, Sharon Percy married John D. Rockefeller IV
Jay Rockefeller
John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as Governor of West Virginia, a position he held from 1977 to 1985...
, who was later elected to two terms (1977-1985) as the Democratic Governor of West Virginia and has been a United States Senator from that state since 1985.
He remained after leaving political office, but suffered from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
in his later years.
He died on September 17, 2011 at the Washington Home and Community Hospice in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.