Former U. S. Rep. John David Dingell Jr., who was one of the U. S. House’s most powerful chairmen and helped write and pass some of the…
Former U. S. Rep. John David Dingell Jr., who was one of the U. S. House’s most powerful chairmen and helped write and pass some of the most consequential legislation in the nation’s history, died Thursday. He was 92.
Dingell, of Dearborn, served nearly 60 years in the House, making him the longest-serving member in Congress’ history. He stepped down in early 2015. His wife, U. S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, confirmed his death for the Free Press at about 9:30 p.m.
«He was my love,» she said, beginning to cry. She said he passed peacefully.
«He was talking to us and we were all laughing (just before he died),» she said, before becoming emotional and asking to get off the phone. Her office, shortly thereafter, put out a statement saying he died in their Dearborn home and will be remembered for «his decades of public service to the people of southeast Michigan, his razor sharp wit, and a lifetime of dedication to improving the lives of all who walk this Earth.”
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Dingell’s death followed hospitalizations for various health problems in recent years. On Wednesday, sources close to his family and other reports said he had entered hospice with prostate cancer. That was after his wife, who replaced her husband in Congress, posted on social media that rather than being in Washington, she was «home with John and we have entered a new phase.»
«He is my love and we have been a team for nearly 40 years. I will be taking each day as it comes,» she said in that post. Five months earlier, in September 2018, Dingell had suffered a mild heart attack and was briefly hospitalized.
«Today the great state of Michigan said farewell to one of our greatest leaders,» Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement as condolences from public officials began to pour in. «John Dingell will forever be remembered as ‘The Dean’ of Congress not simply for the length of his service, but for his unparalleled record of legislative accomplishments.»
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who occasionally sparred with John Dingell, in the past, put out a statement saying, «Today, we have lost a beloved pillar of the Congress and one of the greatest legislators in American history…. Chairman Dingell was our distinguished dean and Chairman, our legendary colleague and a beloved friend. His memory will stand as an inspiration.»
Arrangements for Dingell’s funeral were not immediately released.
Known in Washington and metro Detroit as Big John or “the truck” for his hard-charging personality, Dingell was an iconic presence in both.
An erudite, gentlemanly presence, Dingell, in his heyday atop the House Energy and Commerce Committee, brimmed with self-confidence and legislative savvy. At 6-foot-3, he towered over witnesses and was as feared and revered as any member of Congress. Throughout his career, he remained an advocate of Michigan manufacturing, its signature auto industry and its natural resources.
After retiring at age 88, Dingell surprisingly embraced Twitter, reveling in the brevity of the form. He had more than 258,000 followers as he made playful, often sarcastic comments on culture (“Staff has now informed me of what a Kardashian is. I’m only left with more questions”), Michigan sports (“Say what you will about the Lions, they’ve nearly perfected walking backward between plays while the flags are being picked up”) and politics.
Following the conflict in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 in which white nationalists brawled with protesters wanting to pull down a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee — after which President Donald Trump said there were “very fine people” on both sides — Dingell tweeted, “I signed up to fight Nazis 73 years ago and I’ll do it again if I have to.”
On Wednesday, he dictated his last tweet to his wife, saying, «The Lovely Deborah is insisting I rest and stay off here, but after long negotiations we’ve worked out a deal where she’ll keep up with Twitter for me as I dictate the messages. I want to thank you all for your incredibly kind words and prayers. You’re not done with me just yet.»
He will always be known first and foremost, however, for a remarkable legislative tenure that lasted 59 years — spanning all or part of 11 presidencies — during which time he cast tens of thousands of votes and helped write or otherwise played a role in passing the most significant measures of the era, including Medicare, the Civil Rights Act, the Clean Water and Clean Air acts, the Endangered Species Act and more.
In 2010, he helped pass the Affordable Care Act, modeled in part on legislation dating to that first proposed by his father, a New Deal Democrat whose career the younger Dingell set out to model his own on — and ended up surpassing.
“One of the most consequential members of Congress in the last century» is how congressional scholar Norm Ornstein described Dingell, noting he had a hand in “virtually every major social policy advance” since the 1960s. He was mentioned alongside congressional giants such as House Speakers Sam Rayburn and Tip O’Neill, as well as the late Sen. Robert Byrd, whom Dingell surpassed as the longest-serving member in 2013.
He referred to himself as “just a dumb Polish lawyer” — the family name was altered from Dzieglewicz — but such self-appraisal beggared the facts: For decades, Dingell was considered among the most effective members of Congress in terms of working his will and wasn’t afraid to take on presidents, Cabinet officials, industrialists or even leaders of his own party to do so.
He was not beloved by all. Some environmentalists considered him too close to the auto industry and an enemy to anti-pollution efforts, but he was still praised as a conservationist.
