Charles "Mac" Mathias, Jr.

Biographical Information
Charles "Mac" Mathias, Jr. (died in 2010) Chairman of First America Bank shares.

"Sen. Mathias was elected first to the House of Representatives in 1960 as a moderate Republican, but he soon found himself out of step with a party that was moving increasingly to the right. During his four terms in the House, he helped sponsor civil rights legislation, called for a halt to U.S. bombing of North Vietnam and mapped out a political direction built, in his words, on principle rather than political expediency... Sen. Mathias publicly supported the presidential candidacy of Richard M. Nixon in 1968 and 1972, but he was also one of Nixon's most nettlesome opponents from either party. During Sen. Mathias's first term, he voted against a missile system proposed by the administration, advocated a U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and marched with Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment. He supported his Republican colleagues only 31 percent of the time during his first term and compiled a voting record more liberal than those of most Democrats...

"Sen. Mathias's political career, however, was not defined solely by his opposition to the Nixon administration and the conservative wing of the Republican Party. He traveled to Selma, Ala., in 1965 to meet Martin Luther King Jr. and helped draft an open-housing law prohibiting racial discrimination. Sen. Mathias was an early environmental advocate who proposed legislation to protect the Chesapeake Bay, Antietam National Battlefield and Assateague Island. He was the primary sponsor of the bill that created the C&O Canal National Historical Park...

"In retirement, Sen. Mathias practiced international law with the firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and sat on many committees and boards. In the 1990s, he was assigned by a court order to oversee the dissolution of First American Bankshares after the Bank of Credit and Commerce International banking scandal. In 2002, Sen. Mathias announced his opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and in 2008 he wrote an article for The Washington Post endorsing the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Ann Bradford Mathias of Chevy Chase; two sons, Charles B. Mathias and Robert F. Mathias of the District. Other survivors include a sister, Theresa M. Michel of Frederick; a brother, Edward Trail Mathias of Baltimore; and two granddaughters."

Related Sourcewatch

 * World Policy Institute