page_title: Dick Thornburgh
section_title: Governor of Pennsylvania
hierarchical_section_title: Dick Thornburgh / Career / Governor of Pennsylvania
caption_attribution_description: "Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger visits Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh and Delaware Lieutenant Governor Michael N. Castle in his office in the Pentagon, Room 3E880. Location: WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (DC) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)"
context_page_description: Richard Lewis Thornburgh is an American lawyer, author and Republican politician who served as the 41st Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and then as the U.S. Attorney General from 1988 to 1991. Before his time as Attorney General and Governor, he served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
context_section_description: In 1978, Thornburgh launched a campaign for governor of Pennsylvania. He won the primary over six other contenders, including Arlen Specter, who had become well known as a former Democrat who switched parties and was elected the Philadelphia County district attorney in 1965 and the more conservative David W. Marston, a former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, who was controversially dismissed in 1978 by the Jimmy Carter administration after Marston launched prosecution of two Democratic congressmen and two Democratic state legislators.
  Despite a Democratic majority in the commonwealth, he and running mate Bill Scranton (whose father served as governor in the 1960s) defeated Pittsburgh mayor Pete Flaherty and his running mate, educator Bob Casey (who bears no relation to Robert P. Casey, the 42nd Governor of Pennsylvania). The victory was attributed in part to Thornburgh's campaign promises to crack down on government corruption, at a time when more than 60 persons in the Shapp administration were indicted on criminal charges. Thornburgh and Scranton were reelected in 1982. However, Scranton failed to win the governorship on his own in 1986.
  
  Following the unprecedented 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident near Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Governor Thornburgh was described by observers as "one of the few authentic heroes of that episode as a calm voice against panic." He oversaw emergency response efforts to the partial meltdown at the nuclear power plant and also had a major role in coordinating funding for cleanup efforts.
  He was widely recognized for economic development and the establishment of the Ben Franklin Partnership, and for implementing welfare reform programs. Pennsylvania's unemployment rate, among the ten highest in the nation when he was elected, was among the ten lowest when he left office as 50,000 new businesses and 500,000 new private sector jobs were created during his tenure. However, he was also known for scandals which involved charging the commonwealth for his wife's travel expenses as well as State Police escorts for his children.
  Thornburgh was also responsible for consolidating all of Pennsylvania's state-owned colleges and universities into the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. He also created the Governor's Schools, which were summer programs for talented and gifted high school students.
  In January 1987, Governor Thornburgh was made an honorary Pennsylvania State Police Trooper and this honor was presented to him upon the graduation of the 64th Pennsylvania State Police Academy Class at Hershey, Pennsylvania.
  Thornburgh was the first Republican to serve two successive terms as governor of the commonwealth. Recognized by fellow governors in a 1986 Newsweek poll as one of the most effective big-state governors in the nation.
  By the time his role as Governor was completed, he had begun Pennsylvania's "War on the Incarcerated" by increasing the prison population 971, compared to Shapp before him at an increase of 147. Casey after him increased it again 1,634. And from then on until Corbett you do not see a decrease. 
  After leaving office in 1987, Thornburgh served as director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
caption: Governor Thornburgh (center) with Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger (right) and Delaware Lt. Governor Mike Castle, July 1982.
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