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Jake Garn
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Edwin Jacob Garn (born October 12, 1932) is an American politician, a member of the Republican Party, and served as a U.S. Senator representing Utah from 1974 to 1993. Garn became the first sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-51-D (April 12–April 19, 1985).
Born in Richfield, Utah, Garn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business and finance from the University of Utah in 1955, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
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Encyclopedia
Edwin Jacob Garn (born October 12, 1932) is an American politician, a member of the Republican Party, and served as a U.S. Senator representing Utah from 1974 to 1993. Garn became the first sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-51-D (April 12–April 19, 1985).
Born in Richfield, Utah, Garn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business and finance from the University of Utah in 1955, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He also attended East High School, Clayton Middle School, and Uintah Elementary School.
Experience
Senator Garn is a former insurance executive. He served in the United States Navy as a pilot. He also served in the Utah Air National Guard as a pilot and retired as a Brig. General in April 1979. He has flown more than 10,000 hours in military and private civilian aircraft.
Prior to his election to the Senate, Garn served on the Salt Lake City commission for four years and was elected Mayor in 1971. He was active in the Utah League of Cities and Towns and served as President in 1972. In 1974, he was First Vice President of the National League of Cities and served as Honorary President in 1975.
Garn was first elected to the Senate in 1974, succeeding retiring Republican Wallace Bennett. Garn was reelected to a second term in November 1980, receiving 74 percent of the vote, the largest victory in a statewide race in Utah history.
Garn was chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and served on three subcommittees: Housing and Urban Affairs, Financial Institutions, and International Finance and Monetary Policy. He also was a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and served as Chairman of the HUD-Independent Agencies Subcommittee. He served on four other Appropriations subcommittees: Energy and Water Resources, Defense, Military Construction, and Interior. Garn served as a member of the Republican leadership from 1979 to 1984 as Secretary of the Republican Conference.
Savings and loan
As Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Garn was co-author of the Garn - St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, the law that deregulated the savings and loan industry and led to the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s.
Space flight experience
STS-51-D was launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Its primary objective was to deploy two communications satellites, and to perform electrophoresis and echocardiograph operations in space in addition to a number of other experiments. At the conclusion of the mission, Garn had traveled over 2.5 million miles in 108 Earth orbits, logging over 167 hours in space. The spacesickness he experienced during the journey was so severe that a scale for space sickness was based on him, where "one Garn" is the highest possible level of sickness.
Upon his return, he co-authored a book of fiction entitled, Night Launch. The book centers around terrorists taking control of the Space Shuttle Discovery during the first NASA-USSR space shuttle flight. It was first published in 1989, with a paperback edition coming out in 1990.
Personal life
Garn married Hazel Rhae Thompson in 1957. Together, they had four children: Jacob, Susan, Ellen, and Jeffrey. Hazel was killed in a car accident in 1976. Garn was remarried in 1977 to Kathleen Brewerton, who had a son, Brook, from a previous marriage. Jake and Kathleen had two more children, Matthew and Jennifer. Garn has 18 grandchildren: Ryan, Allison, Kirsten, Spencer, Carlie, Hannah, Mckenzie, Daniel, Lauren, Nathan, Caitlin, Savannah, Collin, Erik, Taylor, Summer, Koa, and Abigail.
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