A Lion of the Democratic Party has died at 102

[Staph]

Ken Hechler, an urbane historian who carpetbagged his way into West Virginia’s gritty politics, where he battled unsafe mining conditions, destructive coal-industry practices and felonious county officials, died Dec. 10 at his home in Romney, W.Va. He was 102.

. . .

During 18 years as a Democratic congressman, 16 more as West Virginia secretary of state and a final act as a do-gooder without portfolio, Dr. Hechler never tired of crusades.

“I used to be an agitator, then an activist,” he wrote at age 94, in 2009. “Now I am a hellraiser.” This was soon after he was arrested while protesting mountaintop removal, the mining method environmentalists hate most.

It seemed an unlikely destiny for the lanky highbrow who in 1957 came to Huntington, W.Va., to teach government at Marshall College. He had taught at Columbia and Princeton, edited President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s papers, written speeches in Harry Truman’s White House and for Adlai Stevenson’s 1956 presidential campaign, and authored scholarly works.

Please read the whole story. This man is a perfect example of the kind of Democrat, the sort of liberal that we all should aspire to be. RIP, Ken!


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ken-hechler-wva-congressman-and-author-of-bridge-at-remagen-dies-at-102/2016/12/11/7ea4b8b0-bfad-11e6-897f-918837dae0ae_story.html