Michael Pertschuk
Encyclopedia
Michael Pertschuk is a consumer and public health advocate, author and former government official. He served as consumer counsel and later chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, from 1965 to 1976; as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission from 1977 to 1981 and as a commissioner of the FTC until 1984; and as co-founder and co-director of the Advocacy Institute. He is the author of Revolt against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement; Giant Killers; Smoke in Their Eyes: Lessons in Movement Leadership from the Tobacco Wars; with Wendy Schaetzel, The People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination; and The DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will into Political Power. He was born in 1933 in London, England. While on the Senate Commerce Committee staff, he was instrumental in drafting the landmark legislation that required warnings on cigarette labels and that banned broadcast advertising of tobacco products, auto and product safety laws, and the Magnuson-Moss Act, strengthening the Federal Trade Commission's consumer protection powers.
He is the author of four of the tobacco control movement’s most influential guides, and he was instrumental in developing GLOBALink, the primary communication tool for the international tobacco control movement. He founded the Smoking Control Advocacy Resource Center, which as part of the Advocacy Institute (see above) provided guides, training, strategic counseling, and other resources to combat the tobacco industry.
The papers of Michael Pertschuk (http://findingaids.loc.gov/db/search/xq/searchMfer02.xq?_id=loc.mss.eadmss.ms006018&_faSection=overview&_faSubsection=scopecontent&_dmdid=d84122e20 on web) are available at the United States Library of Congress. They span the years 1949-2002, with the majority of the papers concentrated from 1977 through 2001. They focus on Pertschuk's work in the arena of consumer protection and consist of two parts processed at different times. Part I relates primarily to Pertschuk's career in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Part II focuses primarily on his writing projects and his work in the field of public interest lobbying and as a tobacco control advocate in the years following his departure from the Federal Trade Commission. The file includes correspondence with Jack Anderson, Patricia P. Bailey, David Brinkley
, Jimmy Carter
, David Cohen, John D. Dingell, James Florio
, Lewis H. Goldfarb, David Horowitz
, George W. Koch, Warren G. Magnuson
, Colman McCarthy
, James C. Miller III
, Walter Mondale
, Edmund S. Muskie, Ralph Nader
, Victor S. Navasky, Esther Peterson
, Robert Pitofsky
, Alan A. Ransom, Ronald Reagan
, David A. Rice, Warren B. Rudman, Alan K. Simpson
, Philip M. Stern http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Archives+and+Manuscripts/fa_stern.htm, Robert S. Strauss, Jack Watson
, and Caspar W. Weinberger.
1954 B.A., Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1954 Manuscript Society
, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1954 Married, Carleen Joyce Dooley (divorced 1976)
1954-1956 First lieutenant, artillery, United States Army
1957 Assistant in instruction, Yale University Law School, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1959 LL.D., J.D., Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1959 Admitted to Oregon bar
1959-1960 Law clerk for United States District Court Judge Gus J. Solomon
, Portland, Oreg.
1960-1962 Associate in law firm, Hart, Rockwood, Davies, Biggs & Strayer, Portland, Oreg.
1962-1964 Legislative assistant, Senator Maurine B. Neuberger of Oregon
1964-1968 Consumer counsel, Senate Commerce Committee
1968-1977 Chief counsel, staff director, Senate Commerce Committee
1977 Married Anna Sofaer
1977-1981 Chairman, Federal Trade Commission
1981-1984 Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
1982 Published Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press
1984- Codirector, Advocacy Institute, Washington, D.C. (now director emeritus)
1984-1985 Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.
1986 Published Giant Killers. New York: Norton
1989 Published with Wendy Schaetzel The People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press
2001 Published Smoke in Their Eyes: Lessons in Movement Leadership from the Tobacco Wars. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press
2010 Published "The DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will into Political Power: Co-published, Vanderbilt Press and the American Public Health Association.
He is the author of four of the tobacco control movement’s most influential guides, and he was instrumental in developing GLOBALink, the primary communication tool for the international tobacco control movement. He founded the Smoking Control Advocacy Resource Center, which as part of the Advocacy Institute (see above) provided guides, training, strategic counseling, and other resources to combat the tobacco industry.
The papers of Michael Pertschuk (http://findingaids.loc.gov/db/search/xq/searchMfer02.xq?_id=loc.mss.eadmss.ms006018&_faSection=overview&_faSubsection=scopecontent&_dmdid=d84122e20 on web) are available at the United States Library of Congress. They span the years 1949-2002, with the majority of the papers concentrated from 1977 through 2001. They focus on Pertschuk's work in the arena of consumer protection and consist of two parts processed at different times. Part I relates primarily to Pertschuk's career in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Part II focuses primarily on his writing projects and his work in the field of public interest lobbying and as a tobacco control advocate in the years following his departure from the Federal Trade Commission. The file includes correspondence with Jack Anderson, Patricia P. Bailey, David Brinkley
David Brinkley
David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997....
, Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, David Cohen, John D. Dingell, James Florio
James Florio
James Joseph "Jim" Florio is a Democratic politician who served as the 49th Governor of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994, the first Italian American to hold the position...
, Lewis H. Goldfarb, David Horowitz
David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
, George W. Koch, Warren G. Magnuson
Warren G. Magnuson
Warren Grant "Maggie" Magnuson was a United States Senator of the Democratic Party from Washington from 1944 until 1981. Upon leaving the Senate, he was the most senior member of the body...
, Colman McCarthy
Colman McCarthy
Colman McCarthy , an American journalist, teacher, lecturer, pacifist, an anarchist and long-time peace activist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. From 1969 to 1997, he wrote columns for The Washington Post. His topics ranged from politics, religion, health, and sports to...
, James C. Miller III
James C. Miller III
James C. Miller III is a former U.S. government official and economist who served as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission between 1981 and 1985 and as Budget Director for President Ronald Reagan between 1985 and 1988...
, Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
, Edmund S. Muskie, Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
, Victor S. Navasky, Esther Peterson
Esther Peterson
Esther Eggertsen Peterson was a lifelong consumer and women's advocate.-Background:The daughter of Danish immigrants, Esther Eggertsen grew up in a Mormon family in Provo, Utah. She graduated from Brigham Young University in 1927 with a degree in physical education. She moved to New York City...
, Robert Pitofsky
Robert Pitofsky
Robert Pitofsky, born December 27, 1929, was chairman of the Federal Trade Commission of the United States from April 11, 1995 to May 31, 2001. He had previously been Dean of the Georgetown University Law Center from 1983 to 1989, and is currently a professor there, teaching in the areas of...
, Alan A. Ransom, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, David A. Rice, Warren B. Rudman, Alan K. Simpson
Alan K. Simpson
Alan Kooi Simpson is an American politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States Senator from Wyoming as a member of the Republican Party. His father, Milward L. Simpson, was also a member of the U.S...
, Philip M. Stern http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Archives+and+Manuscripts/fa_stern.htm, Robert S. Strauss, Jack Watson
Jack Watson (Presidential adviser)
Jack H. Watson Jr. former Chief Legal Strategist of Monsanto Company, served as Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs, Secretary to the Cabinet, and White House Chief of Staff during the Carter Administration....
, and Caspar W. Weinberger.
Biography
1933, Jan. 12 Born London, England1954 B.A., Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1954 Manuscript Society
Manuscript Society
Manuscript Society is a senior secret society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Toward the end of each junior year, 16 undergraduates are "tapped" to be inducted into the society, which meets twice weekly for dinner and discussion...
, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1954 Married, Carleen Joyce Dooley (divorced 1976)
1954-1956 First lieutenant, artillery, United States Army
1957 Assistant in instruction, Yale University Law School, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1959 LL.D., J.D., Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1959 Admitted to Oregon bar
1959-1960 Law clerk for United States District Court Judge Gus J. Solomon
Gus J. Solomon
Gus Jerome Solomon was a United States federal judge.Born in Portland, Oregon, was the child of immigrant Jewish parents, his father having been born in Romania and his mother in Russia. Solomon received a Ph.B. from the University of Chicago in 1926 and an LL.B. from Stanford Law School in 1929...
, Portland, Oreg.
1960-1962 Associate in law firm, Hart, Rockwood, Davies, Biggs & Strayer, Portland, Oreg.
1962-1964 Legislative assistant, Senator Maurine B. Neuberger of Oregon
1964-1968 Consumer counsel, Senate Commerce Committee
1968-1977 Chief counsel, staff director, Senate Commerce Committee
1977 Married Anna Sofaer
1977-1981 Chairman, Federal Trade Commission
1981-1984 Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
1982 Published Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press
1984- Codirector, Advocacy Institute, Washington, D.C. (now director emeritus)
1984-1985 Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.
1986 Published Giant Killers. New York: Norton
1989 Published with Wendy Schaetzel The People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press
2001 Published Smoke in Their Eyes: Lessons in Movement Leadership from the Tobacco Wars. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press
2010 Published "The DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will into Political Power: Co-published, Vanderbilt Press and the American Public Health Association.