Lautenberg, Frank R.

views updated

LAUTENBERG, FRANK R.

LAUTENBERG, FRANK R. (1924– ), U.S. senator, philanthropist, and businessman. Lautenberg was born in Paterson, n.j., the son of Polish and Russian immigrants who came to the United States through Ellis Island. His early life was unsettled as his parents moved about a dozen times while struggling to support the family. Lautenberg's father, Sam, worked in the silk mills, sold coal, farmed, and once ran a tavern. When Lautenberg was 19, his father died of cancer. To help his family, he worked nights and weekends until he graduated from Nutley High School.

Lautenberg served in the Army Signal Corps in Europe during World War ii, where he reached the rank of corporal. Following the war, he attended Columbia University on the gi Bill of Rights. It was his experience with the gi Bill of Rights that convinced Lautenberg of the efficacy of government programs, the hallmark of his liberalism.

Lautenberg worked as a marketing specialist in Henry Taub's accounting practice. Lautenberg helped the business grow by sheer salesmanship and later by strategic acquisitions, rising to president and later ceo of Automatic Data Processing, which had the unique idea of outsourcing payroll processing. Lautenberg, along with his partners, developed adp into one of the largest computing services companies in the world, processing the payrolls of more than 100,000 companies. He rewarded his workers with a stock ownership plan and they rewarded their officers by refusing to unionize. He amassed a fortune and entered Jewish life, rising to be national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal and president of the American Friends of the Hebrew University.

Lautenberg served on the President's Commission on the Holocaust and was both a Congressional and a citizen appointee to the Holocaust Memorial Council, which oversaw the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Denied a Jewish education in his youth, he learned basic synagogue skills only as an adult. But his Jewish identity was central to his philanthropy as well as to his sense of self.

He served as a New York/New Jersey Port Authority commissioner (1978–82) and as a commissioner of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. Lautenberg, running as a Democrat for a New Jersey senatorial seat, beat veteran congresswoman Millicent Fenwick.

Over his first three terms in the U.S. Senate, Lautenberg built a solid record of accomplishment on a broad range of issues. He voted against the use of military forces in the Persian Gulf, a position that he defended even after the American victory by castigating Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for not honoring their commitments.

Lautenberg retired from the U.S. Senate in 2000 at the age of 76, a decision he later regretted. Still vigorous and an ardent skier, he missed the action of the Senate. Fate provided him with an opportunity when his fellow Democrat Robert Torricelli got caught up in a scandal and was forced to withdraw from the race. Democratic Party leaders turned to Lautenberg to preserve the seat. With his widespread name recognition and his own funding as well as assistance from the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, he ran again and won handily, returning to the Senate after a two years' absence.