Background
Nelson grew up in Clear Lake, and was educated in the Clear Lake public schools. In 1939, he graduated from what is now San Jose State University in San Jose, California. In 1942, he received his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison, was admitted to the bar and practiced law. He also served in the United States Army, seeing action in the Okinawa campaign during World War II. In 1948, he was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate, serving until 1958, when he was elected governor. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1962, defeating long-time incumbent Senator Alexander Wiley. He was re-elected in 1968 and 1974, but was unseated by GOP candidate Bob Kasten in 1980.
Read more about this topic: Gaylord Nelson
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Pilate with his question What is truth? is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didnt know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)