Lugar, Richard Green (1932-2019), served as a member of the United States Senate from 1977 to 2013. Lugar, a Republican, represented Indiana.
Lugar served as the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2003 to 2007. He had previously chaired the committee from 1985 to 1986. He chaired the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry from 1995 to 2001. In 1996, he won approval of a sweeping agriculture bill that cut back federal subsidies to farmers and removed some government controls. In 1991, Lugar and Democratic Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia created the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Under the program, the U.S. government provided funds for the dismantling of Soviet nuclear weapons after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Lugar was born in Indianapolis on April 4, 1932. He received a bachelor’s degree from Denison University in 1954. As a Rhodes scholar, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oxford University in 1956. Lugar served in the United States Navy from 1957 to 1960.
From 1960 to 1967, Lugar was treasurer and later also vice president of Lugar Stock Farms, a livestock and grain business. He served on the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners from 1964 to 1967. From 1968 to 1975, he was mayor of Indianapolis.
In 1974, Lugar ran for the U.S. Senate but lost. He tried again in 1976 and won his first election to the Senate. He took office in 1977. In April 1995, Lugar made a bid for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, but he withdrew from the race in March 1996. In May 2012, Lugar lost a Republican senatorial primary campaign to state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Mourdock lost in the November election to Democrat Joe Donnelly. Lugar died on April 28, 2019.
See also Daniels, Mitch .
