Philip Aloysius Hart was born on December 10, 1912, and died on December 26, 1976. He was an American lawyer and politician who worked as a United States senator from Michigan from 1959 until he died from cancer in Washington, D.C., in 1976. He was called the "Conscience of the Senate." The Hart Senate Office Building is named in his honor.

Early life and family

Philip Hart was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to Philip Aloysius and Ann (née Clyde) Hart. His father worked as a banker and was president of the Bryn Mawr Trust Company. Hart received his early education at Waldron Academy and later attended West Philadelphia Catholic High School.

He studied at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he was student body president and won awards for debating. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Georgetown in 1934. In 1937, he received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor.

In June 1943, Hart married Jane "Janey" Briggs, the daughter of Walter and Jane Cameron Briggs. Her father was a philanthropist and had owned the Detroit Tigers. Jane was a pilot and the first female helicopter pilot in Michigan. She later became part of the Mercury 13 group in the 1960s. Hart and Jane met through her brother, who was Hart’s roommate at Georgetown. They have four sons and four daughters. Hart’s namesake, Philip Jr., died as a young child. He was buried in a family plot, and his father was buried nearby many years later.

Early career

Hart was allowed to practice law in the State Bar of Michigan in 1938 and worked at a law firm in Detroit called Beaumont, Smith & Harris. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel in the 4th Infantry Division from 1941 to 1946. He was hurt during the D-Day invasion of Normandy on Utah Beach when shrapnel from an exploding shell hurt his right arm. After the war, he returned to Michigan and recovered at the Percy Jones Army Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. There, he met other veterans, Bob Dole and Daniel Inouye, who later became U.S. senators. He received the Bronze Star Medal with clusters, Arrowhead device, Purple Heart, and Croix de guerre for his service.

In 1946, Hart returned to Detroit and worked at a law firm called Monaghan, Hart & Crawmer. He became active in the Democratic Party and, from 1949 to 1951, worked as Michigan's Corporation Securities Commissioner, a position given by the government. His duties included approving stock issues for companies in the state, licensing real estate brokers and builders, and collecting real estate taxes. In 1951, Hart was appointed as state director of the Office of Price Stabilization, serving for one year. For his work there, he was named the top federal administrator of the year in 1952 by the Federal Business Association.

In 1952, he was appointed as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, serving for one year. From 1953 to 1954, he worked as a legal adviser to Governor G. Mennen Williams, a former law school classmate.

In 1954, Hart ran for public office and was elected as the 51st lieutenant governor of Michigan, running with Governor Williams. He served two terms until 1959. His re-election in 1956 made him the first Democrat in Michigan to serve two terms as lieutenant governor.

U.S. Senate

Hart was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1958, during a time when many Democrats won elections. He defeated Republican Charles E. Potter, who had served one term, with 54% of the vote compared to Potter’s 46%. Hart was easily re-elected in 1964 and 1970. In 1970, his opponent was Lenore Romney, who had been the First Lady of Michigan. Some conservatives in Michigan tried to remove Hart from office because of his views on gun control and school busing to promote racial integration. They used bumper stickers that said, “Recall cures Hart attacks.” However, the U.S. Constitution does not allow recalls for federal officials, and Hart was strongly re-elected by his supporters.

Hart was the main sponsor in the Senate of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also called the Hart–Celler Act. This law ended the immigration quotas that had limited immigration from most countries since 1924.

Hart died while serving in office. He announced in June 1976 that he would not run for re-election again. A month later, he was diagnosed with cancer. That same year, the Senate voted to name a new Senate office building after him, the Hart Senate Office Building. This would have been the first federal government building named after someone still living. The vote was 99–0, with Hart not voting. He died of melanoma a few days later, just a week before his term would have ended. Donald W. Riegle, Jr., who had recently been elected to the Senate, was chosen to fill Hart’s seat for the remaining days of the congressional session.

Hart is buried in St. Anne’s Catholic Cemetery on Mackinac Island, in a family plot near his son, who died as a toddler.

Honors

• In 1982, the Hart Senate Office Building, the third to be built, was officially opened and named after him.
• Other buildings named after Hart include the Hart–Dole–Inouye Federal Center in Battle Creek, Michigan; the Philip A. Hart Plaza along the Detroit Riverfront; the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Empire, Michigan; Hart Middle School in Rochester Hills, Michigan; and the Hart–Kennedy House in Lansing, which serves as the headquarters of the Michigan Democratic Party.
• The Philip Hart Memorial Scholarship was created at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It is a full scholarship given to a student who shows the same qualities and goals as the senator.
• The moot court room at Georgetown University Law Center is named in his honor.
• The visitor center at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is named after Hart, who first introduced the bill in Congress to create the park in 1961.