Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was one of the most popular and influential American statesmen of the 20th century with a government career that spanned nearly 50 years. Born in Oklahoma, he was raised in New York City where he shined shoes and sold newspapers during the Great Depression and graduated first in his class from Benjamin Franklin High School in Harlem. He attended City College, joined the Navy, studied as a Fulbright scholar at the London School of Economics and completed his PhD at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

His public service career began with Mayor Wagner and Governor Harriman of New York. The only American to serve in four successive presidential cabinets (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford), Moynihan was an acclaimed diplomat who served as US Ambassador to India and the United Nations and was one of two Senators from New York to serve four consecutive terms as Senator (1982-2000). In the 1982 and 1988 elections, Moynihan won by the largest plurality in American Senate history.

He was celebrated in international political and diplomatic circles and was one of the few Unites States politicians known throughout the world for his work, words, wit and presence. The Almanac of American Politics defined Moynihan as “the best thinker among politicians since Jefferson and the best politician among thinkers since Lincoln”. Many of his statements have become classics, such as “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts” and “I don’t suppose there’s any point in being Irish if you don’t know the world’s going to break your heart eventually”, spoken after the assassination of President Kennedy.

Throughout his distinguished career, Senator Moynihan possessed a unique ability to predict and identify issues and provide practical solutions. His tenacity and determination changed laws and opinions on family policy, foreign policy, social security, government secrecy, urban planning, and transportation. He represented the practical, centrist heart of the liberal tradition, and often referred to himself as an “Al Smith Democrat”. Throughout his career Moynihan was singularly faithful to his democratic roots and effective in working with Republican colleagues in academia, the White House and the Senate.

Moynihan was also a tenured professor at Harvard University and wrote 18 books, including the landmark volume on ethnicity in urban America, Beyond the Melting Pot.