Gingrich, Newt (1943–)

DR. NEWTON LEROY Gingrich, more well-known as Newt Gingrich, was born on June 17, 1943, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Originally named Newton McPherson, Gingrich was renamed after his new father, Robert Gingrich, following his parents' separation soon after his birth. During his youth, Gingrich quickly developed a love of reading. His lobbying career began at the very young age of 10 when he joined a group of schoolchildren who went to the mayor's office in Harrisburg to ask for the establishment of a town zoo. In 1956, his family moved to Europe as a result of his father's military career; he went to school at U.S. military institutions in Orleans, France, and Stuttgart, Germany. In 1960, Gingrich and his family returned to Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia, where he graduated from Baker High School in 1961. During his time there, Gingrich successfully ran his friend's student body president campaign, was a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, and was voted “most intellectual” by his classmates.

After graduating from high school, Gingrich continued to have a secret relationship with one of his math teachers, Jackie Battley, whom he married on June 19, 1962, while he was a freshman at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Their first child was born only a year later, before Gingrich graduated from college. Even though his young family occupied much of his time, Gingrich was able to start a Young Republican Club at Emory, where he debated politics and the future of the United States with other interested students. In December 1965, he graduated with a degree in history.

From 1966 to 1970, Gingrich studied at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. While there, Gingrich was able to receive a draft deferment for the Vietnam War as a result of his family situation, although he was also flat-footed and nearsighted. Politically, he ran an on-campus campaign to drum up support for Nelson Rockefeller's presidential bid in 1968. In the beginning of 1971, Gingrich graduated with a Ph.D. in history, although his professors noted that his thesis on the status of education in the Belgian Congo wasn't exceptional and has never been published.

At the age of 27, Gingrich used his teaching career, which began with a professorship at West Georgia College, as a springboard for his political career, but he failed in his first two bids for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and 1976. Accruing debts and losing his chance to gain tenure at the college, Gingrich obtained some financing from friends to write a novel and briefly moved his family to Europe.

He never finished the novel, but finally succeeded in his campaign to represent the citizens of Georgia's sixth congressional district in 1978 as a member of the Republican Party. Going on to serve 10 terms in Congress, Gingrich constructed a range of programs, known as New Age Reaganism, which included a balanced budget; the line-item veto; attacks on drugs, crime, and welfare; and evocation of supply-side economics. Serving as minority whip from 1989 to 1994, Gingrich became the speaker of the house following the rampant success of the Republican Party in the 1994 elections.

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