Barry Goldwater

At 89 years old, Barry Goldwater has this physical status:

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998), an American politician, businessman, and writer who served in Arizona (1953-1965, 1969–1987) and Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964.

Despite losing the 1964 presidential race by a landslide, Goldwater is the politician most often credited with the revival of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s.

He had a major influence on the libertarian movement, and fought against the New Deal coalition.

Despite being a fan of earlier civil rights legislation, he notably opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as he believed it to be an overreach by the federal government.

Goldwater won the hard-fought Republican presidential primaries in 1964, despite a large conservative base.

Despite being raised as an Episcopalian, Goldwater was the first candidate of ethnically Jewish origins to be nominated for President by a major American party (his father was Jewish).

Goldwater's campaign eventually failed to win the vote of the electorate, and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson.

Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969 and specialized in defense and foreign affairs.

Goldwater, as a senior statesman of the party, persuaded President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974, just as evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. As he came to an end in his career, Goldwater's views became more libertarian; he resigned from the Senate in 1987.

The 1986 passage of the Goldwater–Nichols Act was a major achievement in his career.

He was succeeded by John McCain, who praised his predecessor as the one who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist party to Ronald Reagan's breeding ground." After his "A Time for Choosing" address, Goldwater endorsed Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, who had been the conservative leader.

In his campaign, Reagan reflected many of Goldwater's earlier claims.

"We [...] who voted for him in 1964 think he won," Washington Post columnist George Will remembers. "It took us 16 years to count the votes." Goldwater's views as libertarian after leaving the Senate were cemented as libertarian.

He slammed "moneymaking schemes" by fellows like Pat Robertson and others [in the Republican Party] who are attempting to "make a religious group out of it." He lobbied for homosexuals to serve openly in the military, opposed the Clinton administration's health-care reform initiative, advocated abortion rights, and incorporated medicinal marijuana.

Goldwater was discovered to be in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease in 1997.

He died at the age of 89 one year later.

Early life and family background

Baron M. Goldwater and his partner, Hattie Josephine "JoJo" Williams, were born in Phoenix, Arizona Territory, where the son of Baron M. Goldwater and his wife, Hattie Josephine "JoJo" Williams was born. The father of his father founded Goldwater's Department Store, Phoenix's most prominent upscale department store. Michel Goldwasser, the paternal grandfather of Goldwater, a Polish Jew, was born in Konin in 1821 and later became part of Congress Poland. Following the 1848 Revolutions in London, he immigrated to London. Michel anglicized his name to Michael Goldwater shortly after arriving in London. In the Great Synagogue of London, Michel married Sarah Nathan, a descendant of an English-Jewish family. The Goldwaters arrived in San Francisco, California, first arriving in San Francisco, California, where Michael Goldwater established a small department store that was later expanded by his three sons, Henry, Baron, and Morris. Morris Goldwater (1852–1939) was an Arizona territorial and state legislator, mayor of Prescott, Arizona, delegated to the Arizona Constitutional Convention and later President of the Arizona State Senate.

Baron Goldwater's father, who was Jewish, was raised in his mother's Episcopalian faith, but he was raised in his mother's Episcopalian faith. Hattie Williams was born in a New England family that included theologian Roger Williams of Rhode Island. Goldwater's parents were married in an Episcopal church in Phoenix; Goldwater was an Episcopalian, but on rare occasions he referred to himself as Jewish. Although he did not often attend church, he said, "If a man acts in a religious way, an Melbourne one, then he's definitely a religious man"; and that doesn't have a lot to do with how often he goes into a church." Julius Goldwater, a convert to Buddhism and a Jodo Shinshu priest who helped intern Japanese Americans during World War II, was his first cousin.

After failing as a freshman in high school, Goldwater's parents sent him to Staunton Military Academy, where he competed in varsity football, basketball, track, and swimming, earning the rank of captain. He graduated from the academy in 1928 and enrolled at the University of Arizona. However, after one year, it was gone. Barry Goldwater is the most recent non-college graduate to run for president of a major political party in a presidential election. Around the time of his father's death in 1930, Goldwater started his family's company. He took over the department store six years ago, but he was not particularly worried about the operations.

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Military career

Goldwater received a reserve commission in the United States Army Air Force as a result of America's service in World War II. Goldwater began as a pilot and was posted to the Ferry Command, a newly formed unit that delivered aircraft and supplies to war zones around the world. He spent the bulk of the war flying between the United States and India, via the Azores and North Africa, Nigeria, and Central Africa. Goldwater also flew "the hump," one of WWII's most dangerous routes for supply planes, because it required the plane to fly directly across the Himalayas in order to bring desperately needed supplies to the Republic of China.

Goldwater, a leading proponent of the establishment of the United States Air Force Academy in WWII, later served on the academy's Board of Visitors. The visitor center at the academy has been named in his honor. After the war, Goldwater remained in the Army Air Reserve, and in 1946, at the rank of Colonel, Goldwater established the Arizona Air National Guard. Two years before the rest of the United States military, Goldwater ordered the Arizona Air National Guard to segregate. He was a senator in the early 1960s, leading the 9999th Air Reserve Squadron as a major general. Goldwater was instrumental in persuading the Pentagon to promote the separation of the military services.

Goldwater served in the Arizona Air National Guard until 1967, retiring as a Command Pilot with the rank of major general. He had flown 165 different models of aircraft by that time. He continued piloting aircraft, including the B-52 Stratofortress, until late in his military career.

As a United States citizen, I am a human being. "There are old pilots and there are young pilots, and there are brilliant pilots, but there are no young, brave pilots," Senator Goldwater's office had a sign referring to his military service and outlook: "There are old pilots and there are young pilots," he said in his office.

Early political career

Goldwater, who lived in a largely Democratic state, became a centrist Republican and a Herbert Hoover associate. He was outspoken against New Deal liberalism, particularly because of its close links to labor unions. He crisscrossed Arizona and became involved in both the state's natural and human history. When he was elected to the City Council in 1949, he began working with a nonpartisan coalition of candidates vowing to eliminate widespread prostitution and gambling. The team won every mayoral and council election for the next two decades. Goldwater revived the tiny Republican Party and was instrumental in the 1950 election of Howard Pyle as Governor.

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Military awards

• Command Pilot Badge
• Service Pilot Badge (former U.S. Army Air Forces rating)
• Legion of Merit
• Air Medal
• Army Commendation Medal
• American Defense Service Medal
• American Campaign Medal
• European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
• Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal with campaign star
• World War II Victory Medal
• Armed Forces Reserve Medal with three bronze hourglasses

Other awards

• Presidential Medal of Freedom (1986)
• American Legion Distinguished Service Medal
• Marconi Gold Medal, Veteran Wireless Operators Association (1968)
• Marconi Medal of Achievement (1968)
• Bob Hope Five Star Civilian Award (1976)
• Good Citizenship Award, Daughters of the American Revolution
• 33rd Degree Mason
• The Douglas MacArthur Memorial Award
• Top Gun Award, Luke Air Force Base
• Order of Fifinella Award – Champion of the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) (1978)
• Thomas D. White National Defense Award 1978
• Conservative Digest Award (1980)
• Senator John Warner Award for Public Service in the field of Nuclear Disarmament (1983)
• Alexander M. Haig, Jr. Memorial Award (1983)
• National Congress of American Indians Congressional Award (1985)
• Space Pioneer Award, Sixth Space Development Conference (1987)
• James Madison Award, American Whig-Cliosophic Society (1988)
• National Aviation Hall of Fame (1982)