Richard B. Cheney (plaster model)

Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on January 30, 1941. His father was an agent for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, which required the family to relocate to Wyoming when Cheney was thirteen. Growing up in Casper, Wyoming, Cheney played football and baseball, fished, and hunted rabbits. He was co-captain of the high school football team and dated the school’s homecoming queen, Lynne Vincent, whom he married in 1964.

Following three semesters at Yale University, Cheney obtained both a bachelor of arts and a master of arts degree in political science from the University of Wyoming. In 1969, having accepted an American Political Science Association fellowship to spend a year on Capitol Hill, he began working in the office of Wisconsin Representative William Steiger. The next year, he joined the staff of the Office of Economic Opportunity, where he worked with director Donald Rumsfeld. As special assistant to the president, Rumsfeld began taking Cheney to the West Wing for daily staff meetings. In 1975, at only thirty-four years of age, Cheney became the White House Chief of Staff to President Gerald Ford.

In 1978 Cheney ran for Wyoming’s sole seat in the House of Representatives, defeating the Democratic candidate with 58.6 percent of the vote. Reelected to the House five times, he served on the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, whose jurisdiction covered matters of vital concern to his state, and worked to enact President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts and foreign policy initiatives. During his second term, he was elected chair of the House Republican Policy Committee and later was chosen by House Republicans to be their conference chairman and minority whip.

President George H. W. Bush nominated Cheney to be secretary of defense in 1989. The Senate confirmed his nomination with a 92-0 vote and he held the position throughout President Bush’s term in office. When that administration ended in 1993, Cheney served as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute before becoming chairman and CEO of Halliburton, a multinational energy services and construction company, in 1995.

On January 20, 2001, Richard Cheney became the 46th vice president of the United States and subsequently played an active and influential role in the administration of President George W. Bush.