Thomas F. Eagleton Thomas Francis Eagleton, LL.B., (born September 4, 1929) is a former United States Senator from Missouri. He represented Missouri in the United States Senate from 1969 until 1987. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is currently a university professor at the St. Louis University School of Law and law partner. Graduating from St. Louis Country Day School, Amherst College in 1950 and Harvard Law School, Eagleton served as Missouri's Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor, won a U.S. Senate seat in 1968, and sought the Vice Presidency in 1972. He was nominated for Vice President at the 1972 Democratic Party convention, with George McGovern as the party's presidential candidate. Although many Americans supported Eagleton's candidacy, his vice-presidential hopes evaporated when it was revealed shortly after the party convention that he had been hospitalized on three occasions for depression and had undergone electroshock therapy. McGovern initially claimed that he would back Eagleton "1000 percent," but changed his mind three days later; McGovern's indecisiveness put off many supporters. Further damage was done to the McGovern campaign because it had to spend time looking for a new running mate while it should have been getting its message out to the public. McGovern removed Eagleton from the ticket and replaced him with Sargent Shriver. However, McGovern and Shriver lost the general election to Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew by a wide margin that November.
In the Senate, Eagleton was active in matters dealing with foreign relations, intelligence (information gathering), defense (military), education, health care and the environment. He was instrumental to the Senate's passage of the Clean Air and Water Acts, and sponsored the amendment that halted the bombing in Cambodia and effectively ended American involvement in the Vietnam War.
After 30 years in public office, including three Senate terms (1969 to 1987), Eagleton returned to St. Louis, Missouri, as an attorney, political commentator, and professor at Washington University in St. Louis, where he still holds the title of Professor of Public Affairs. He also is a partner in the St. Louis law firm of Thompson Coburn and was a chief negotiator for a coalition of local business interests that lured the Los Angeles Rams football team to St. Louis. He is the author of three books about politics, and the 8th Circuit Federal Courthouse (in St. Louis) is named for him.
He has been honoured with his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
