On January 22, 1991, during the Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush named Lamar Alexander to be the United States Secretary of Education. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed his nomination to the President’s Cabinet. At the time, he was president of the University of Tennessee. He had been Governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987, helping the Volunteer State become the fastest growing state in family incomes, the first to pay good teachers more, and the third largest automobile producer in the nation.
Lamar Alexander was born July 3, 1940, in Maryville, Tennessee, the son of an elementary school principal and a kindergarten teacher.
He and his wife, Honey, live in Nashville, and have four children.
Alphabetical Listing of Senators
