Wolpe, Howard, 1939-2011

<p>Howard Eliot Wolpe (November 3, 1939 – October 25, 2011) was a seven-term U.S. Representative from Michigan and Presidential Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes Region in the Clinton Administration, where he led the United States delegation to the Arusha and Lusaka peace talks, which aimed to end civil wars in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He returned to the State Department as Special Advisor to the Secretary for Africa's Great Lakes Region. Previously, he served as Director of the Africa Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and of the Center's Project on Leadership and Building State Capacity. While at the Center, Wolpe directed post-conflict leadership training programs in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia.</p>

<p>A specialist in African politics for ten of his fourteen years in the Congress, Wolpe chaired the Subcommittee on Africa of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. As chair of the House Africa Subcommittee, Wolpe co-authored (with Rep. Ron Dellums and others) and managed legislation that imposed sanctions against South Africa, by over-riding President Ronald Reagan's veto of that sanctions legislation (the Comprehensive Anti-apartheid Act of 1986). He also authored and managed the passage of the African Famine Recovery and Development Act, -- a comprehensive rewrite in the 1980s of America's approach to development assistance in Africa that included the creation of the African Development Fund.</p>

<p>In 1992, Wolpe's Kalamazoo-based district was eliminated, and most of its territory, including his home, was merged with the district of three-term Republican Fred Upton. The reconfigured district was geographically more Upton's district than Wolpe's, prompting Wolpe to retire.</p>

<p><b>RACES</b>
<ul>
<li> 11/08/1994 MI Governor Lost 38.47% (-23.01%)</li>
<li> 08/02/1994 MI Governor- D Primary Won 35.25% (+4.82%)</li>
<li> 11/06/1990 MI District 3 Won 57.85% (+15.71%)</li>
<li> 11/08/1988 MI District 3 Won 57.34% (+14.68%)</li>
<li> 11/04/1986 MI District 3 Won 60.37% (+20.74%)</li>
<li> 11/06/1984 MI District 3 Won 52.93% (+5.86%)</li>
<li> 11/02/1982 MI District 3 Won 56.32% (+13.68%)</li>
<li> 11/04/1980 MI District 3 Won 52.01% (+4.82%)</li>
<li> 11/07/1978 MI District 03 Won 51.33% (+2.67%)</li>
<li> 11/02/1976 MI District 03 Lost 48.56% (-2.02%)</li>
<li> 08/03/1976 MI District 03 - D Primary Won 60.58% (+21.16%)</li>
</ul>
</p>

WOLPE, Howard Eliot, III, a Representative from Michigan; born in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Calif., November 3, 1939; attended the public schools of Los Angeles; graduated from University High School, Los Angeles, 1956; B.A., Reed College, Portland, Oreg., 1960; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., 1967; associate professor, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich., 1967-1972; regional representative to United States Senator Donald Riegle of Michigan, 1976-1978; member, Michigan state legislature, 1972-1976; Kalamazoo City Commissioner, 1969-1972; delegate, Michigan state Democratic conventions, 1972-1978; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-sixth and to the six succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1979-January 3, 1993); was not a candidate for renomination in 1992 to the One Hundred Third Congress; died on October 25, 2011, in Saugatuck, Mich.

<p>Congressman, diplomat, professor, and author of a landmark piece of legislation that helped push South Africa to abandon apartheid, Howard combined a passion for justice and equality with a grasp of hardnosed politics. “I used to insist that my greatest political strength was my fallibility,” Howard said in 2008. “I have always argued that when people can call you by your first name, that is a way of narrowing distance and improving communications. To hold onto power by putting yourself above the people is ultimately counterproductive.”

Howard’s mother was a clinical psychologist; his father, a pediatrician. He was 16 when he took the train from Los Angeles to Reed, drawn to the college for its brainy reputation. His freshman roommate was the future economist Lester Lave ’60. Howard treasured the sense of autonomy, the irreverence, and the testing of assumptions he found at Reed. “I think that my life and my career has always continued those characteristics that I loved so greatly, so deeply when I was here at Reed.” Howard served on the student senate, was a resident adviser, and fulfilled his P.E. credits through folk dancing and grueling basketball drills. He earned a BA in political science, studying with professors Maure Goldschmidt [political science 1935–81], Marvin Levich [philosophy 1953–94], and John Pock [sociology 1955–98]. “The work I did in sociology and political science helped inform my approach to politics and my understanding of politics.”

Howard pursued political science at MIT, where a course on African studies sparked his interest in African nationalism; he spent two years in Nigeria working on his dissertation. In 1967, he moved to Kalamazoo to teach political science at Western Michigan University. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated a few months later. Howard left the classroom and moved into the streets, he said, where his interest in racial and ethnic conflict acquired a more practical relevance. King’s assassination outraged the nation; Howard became one of the founders of Action Now, an organization focused on race and poverty in Kalamazoo, which brought him unexpected public visibility as an activist and agitator. It also led to a position as Kalamazoo city commissioner. Thus he found himself in the unusual situation of playing a dual role, both as an academic teaching the politics of race and as a local official struggling with racial conflicts.</p>