John Tower

John Goodwin Tower (September 29, 1925 – April 5, 1991) was an American politician. He was the first Republican United States senator from Texas since Reconstruction. 

He served from 1961 until his retirement on January 3, 1985, after which time he was appointed as the chairman of the Reagan-appointed Tower Commission that investigated the Iran-Contra Affair. He was George Herbert Walker Bush's nominee for Secretary of Defense in 1989 but was rejected by the Senate, 53–47.

On April 5, 1991, Tower and his middle daughter, Marian, and the astronaut Sonny Carter were killed along with twenty other people in the crash of Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311.

Other websites
Handbook of Texas article on John Tower
Oral History Interviews with John Tower, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library 

 Southwestern University and SMU's John G. Tower Digital Media Collection contains videos and audios by John Tower throughout his career.
Booknotes interview with Roger Gittines on Consequences: John G. Tower, A Personal and Political Memoir, June 30, 1991. 
John G. Tower Papers  – Official repository for John Tower's Senate and personal papers, Special Collections, Southwestern University.
Speech by John Tower given on November 11, 1970. Audio recording. From the University of Alabama's Emphasis Symposium on Contemporary Issues.

Category:1925 births
Category:1991 deaths
Category:Aviation deaths in the United States
Category:United States senators from Texas
Category:Politicians from Houston
Category:Republican Party (United States) politicians