Gaylord Nelson

Gaylord Anton Nelson (June 4, 1916 – July 3, 2005) was an American lawyer, Democratic politician, and environmentalist from Wisconsin. He served three terms as a United States senator from Wisconsin, from 1963 to 1981, and was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Small Business for the last six years of his tenure. During his time in the U.S. Senate, he was the creator of Earth Day, which launched a new wave of environmental activism. After losing his bid for re-election in 1980, he continued his environmental activism as counselor for The Wilderness Society, and was honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his environmental efforts by President Bill Clinton. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, Nelson was the 35th governor of Wisconsin, serving two terms from 1959 to 1963, and represented Dane County for ten years in the Wisconsin Senate (1949–1959); when he was elected governor in 1958, Nelson was the first Democrat to win a gubernatorial election in Wisconsin since 1932, and only the second in the 20th century. He was a key figure in the merging of the remnants of the Wisconsin Progressive Party into the Democratic Party of Wisconsin through the 1940s and 1950s, transforming the Democrats from a permanent minority in the state to a viable contender for state offices.

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