Biography of Lee Hamilton
Lee Hamilton was born on April 20, 1931. His family eventually moved to Indiana, where he earned a law degree from Indiana University in 1956. After 10 years of practicing law, Hamilton began a distinguished career in the U.S. House of Representatives that lasted 34 years.
While representing Indiana's Ninth District, Hamilton served as chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Hamilton also headed the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran. As a member of the House Standards of Official Conduct Committee, he fought for honesty and integrity in Congress as a primary draftsman of several House ethics reforms.
In December 2002, Hamilton was appointed vice chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The committee's report called for an overhaul of the intelligence community and was widely praised for its insight and clarity.
Hamilton and his wife, the former Nancy Ann Nelson, have three children, Tracy Lynn Souza, Deborah Hamilton Kremer, and Douglas Nelson Hamilton.
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Recipients:
- Richard G. Lugar (2007)
- Carl Levin (2006)
- Thomas H. Kean (2005)
- Lee Hamilton (2005)
- Eliot Spitzer (2004)
- Paul S. Sarbanes (2003)
- Arthur Levitt (2002)
- William S. Cohen (2001)
- John McCain (2000)
- Russ Feingold (2000)
- Paul Simon (1999)
- Abner J. Mikva (1998)
- Arthur S. Flemming (1997)
- A. Ernest Fitzgerald (1996)
- Archibald Cox (1995)
- Michael J. Mansfield (1994)
