George McGovern, Champion in Fight Against Hunger, Dead at 90

22 October 2012

Portrait photo of George McGovern (Courtesy of World Food Prize)

The world lost a leader in the war against hunger when George McGovern, a former U.S. senator and presidential candidate, died October 21 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was 90 years old.

Most Americans probably remember McGovern best for his 1972 challenge to President Richard Nixon, but the world will remember him for his tireless work to improve food security around the globe.

In 2002, McGovern, a Democrat, and his former Senate colleague Bob Dole, a Republican, co-founded what became the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, a global school feeding effort that promotes education, child development and food security for poor children to provide them with meals at schools in countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Since it began, the program has provided meals to 22 million children in 41 countries.

For their leadership in passing legislation to establish the McGovern-Dole program, in 2008 the two former senators received the World Food Prize, which is awarded to individuals whose efforts have made significant contributions to improving the quality, quantity and availability of food in the world.

“His legacy will be that he took food to people around the world, making it available, and it’s this wonderful, wonderful achievement,” said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation.

“Today we have lost a tireless advocate for the world's hungry,” said José Graziano da Silva, director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

“His work drafting legislation in his own country to meet the nutritional needs of vulnerable women, infants and children and as a vigorous champion of school lunch programmes, both in the U.S. and around the world, has helped give millions of the world's poorest children the nutritional foundation needed to succeed in school and life," Graziano da Silva said.

AN UNLIKELY POLITICIAN

Born in Avon, South Dakota, in 1922, McGovern won a scholarship to attend Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota, but World War II interrupted his studies. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942 and served as a bomber pilot in Europe, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.

After the war, McGovern returned to Dakota Wesleyan University, graduating in 1946. He then attended Garrett Seminary for one year before enrolling at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he earned a master's degree and a doctorate in American history and government. He returned to Dakota Wesleyan in 1950 to teach history and political science.

That quiet academic life began to recede in favor of a political career in 1952, when McGovern heard a speech by Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson and was inspired to join Stevenson’s campaign in South Dakota. McGovern's involvement in that race built the foundation for his own run for office.

“When the people of South Dakota sent him to Washington, this hero of war became a champion for peace,” President Obama said, referring to both his distinguished service in World War II and his outspoken criticism of U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. “George was a statesman of great conscience and conviction.”

In 1956, McGovern was elected to the first of two terms in the House of Representatives. Seeking election to the Senate In 1960, he failed but was appointed by President John Kennedy as the first director of the U.S. Food for Peace Program. In that post, McGovern oversaw the donation of millions of tons of food to developing nations. The idea, pioneered by the United States, was the genesis of the U.N. World Food Programme.

McGovern ran again for the Senate in 1962, this time successfully. Serving on committees responsible for agriculture, nutrition, forestry and foreign relations, he led the way in expanding nutrition programs.

In 1972, McGovern won the Democratic nomination for president and, running on an anti-war platform, lost to President Richard Nixon. Nixon's successor, President Gerald Ford, named McGovern a delegate to the U.N. General Assembly in 1976; in 1978, President Jimmy Carter named him a delegate for the U.N. Special Session on Disarmament.

When McGovern retired from the Senate in 1980 after 22 years of service, he became a visiting professor at numerous institutions, including Columbia University, Northwestern University, Cornell University, American University and the University of Berlin.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton appointed McGovern ambassador to the United Nations' food and agriculture agencies in Rome. In 2000, Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. The following year, McGovern was appointed the first U.N. global ambassador on hunger.

“George believed deeply in public service. It defined him as a Senator and as a man,” Vice President Biden said. “He never stopped serving for his entire life — whether it was his courage in World War II, his time in Congress, or his fight to eliminate hunger at home and abroad.”

“There can be no doubt that throughout his half-century career in the public arena, George McGovern never gave up on his principles,” Dole wrote in a letter published October 22 in the Washington Post. ”America and the world are for the better because of him.”

Funeral services will be held October 26 in Sioux Falls. A private burial will take place at a later date in Washington.