49 Facts About Barry Goldwater

1. Barry Goldwater was the first Congressman to serve while having a father in the Senate.

2. Barry Goldwater died on May 29, 1998, at the age of 89 at his long-time home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, of complications from the stroke.

3. On March 28, 1975, Barry Goldwater wrote to Shlomo Arnon: "The subject of UFOs has interested me for some long time.

4. On one occasion, Barry Goldwater brought his camera and photographed President Kennedy.

5. Barry Goldwater was a member of the Royal Photographic Society from 1941 becoming a Life Member in 1948.

6. Barry Goldwater got started in photography after receiving a camera as a gift from his wife on their first Christmas together.

7. Barry Goldwater was an amateur photographer and in his estate left some 15,000 of his images to three Arizona institutions.

8. In 1916, Barry Goldwater visited the Hopi Reservation with Phoenix architect John Rinker Kibby, and obtained his first kachina doll.

9. Barry Goldwater was a prominent spokesman for amateur radio and its enthusiasts.

10. Barry Goldwater visited the small town of Bowen, Illinois, in 1989 to see where his mother was raised.

11. Barry Goldwater is a 1987 recipient of the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.

12. Barry Goldwater introduced the 1984 Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act, which allowed local governments to require the transmission of public, educational, and government access channels, barred cable operators from exercising editorial control over content of programs carried on PEG channels, and absolved them from liability for their content.

13. Barry Goldwater disagreed with the Reagan administration on certain aspects of foreign policy.

14. Barry Goldwater played little part in the election or administration of Richard Nixon, but he helped force Nixon's resignation in 1974.

15. Barry Goldwater fought in 1971 to stop US funding of the United Nations after the People's Republic of China was admitted to the organization.

16. Barry Goldwater emphasized his strong opposition to the worldwide spread of communism in his 1960 book The Conscience of a Conservative.

17. Barry Goldwater became most associated with labor-union reform and anti-communism; he was a supporter of the conservative coalition in Congress.

18. Barry Goldwater retired in 1987, serving as chair of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees in his final term.

19. Barry Goldwater was challenged by a formidable opponent, Bill Schulz, a former Republican turned Democrat and a wealthy real estate developer.

20. Barry Goldwater was viewed by some as out of touch and vulnerable for several reasons; most importantly, because he had planned to retire in 1981, Goldwater had not visited many areas of Arizona outside of Phoenix and Tucson.

21. Barry Goldwater decided to run, planning to make the term his last in the Senate.

22. Barry Goldwater seriously considered retirement in 1980 before deciding to run for reelection.

23. In December 1961, Barry Goldwater had told a news conference that "sometimes I think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the Eastern Seaboard and let it float out to sea.

24. Barry Goldwater had once called the Eisenhower administration "a dime-store New Deal" and the former president never fully forgave him.

25. Barry Goldwater was painted as a dangerous figure by the Johnson campaign, which countered Goldwater's slogan "In your heart, you know he's right" with the lines "In your guts, you know he's nuts", and "In your heart, you know he might".

26. Barry Goldwater would defeat Rockefeller in the winner-take-all California primary and secure the nomination.

27. Barry Goldwater delivered a captivating acceptance speech, to which "he devoted more care.

28. In 1964, Barry Goldwater fought and won a multi-candidate race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

29. Barry Goldwater was outspoken about the Eisenhower administration, calling some of the policies of the Eisenhower administration too liberal for a Republican President.

30. Barry Goldwater gave up re-election for the Senate in 1964 in favor of his presidential campaign.

31. Barry Goldwater defeated McFarland again in 1958, with a strong showing in his first reelection; he was the first Arizona Republican to win a second term in the Senate.

32. Barry Goldwater won largely by defeating McFarland in his native Maricopa County by 12,600 votes, almost double the overall margin of 6,725 votes.

33. Barry Goldwater entered Phoenix politics in 1949, when he was elected to the City Council as part of a nonpartisan team of candidates pledged to clean up widespread prostitution and gambling.

34. Barry Goldwater belonged to both the York Rite and Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and was awarded the 33rd degree in the Scottish Rite.

35. Barry Goldwater was a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and Sigma Chi fraternity.

36. Barry Goldwater joined them in Green River, Utah, and rowed his own boat down to Lake Mead.

37. In 1940, Barry Goldwater became one of the first people to run the Colorado River recreationally through Grand Canyon participating as an oarsman on Norman Nevills' second commercial river trip.

38. Barry Goldwater often went by the nickname of "Rolling Thunder.

39. Barry Goldwater was instrumental in pushing the Pentagon to support desegregation of the armed services.

40. Barry Goldwater spent most of the war flying between the US and India, via the Azores and North Africa or South America, Nigeria, and Central Africa.

41. Barry Goldwater became a pilot assigned to the Ferry Command, a newly formed unit that flew aircraft and supplies to war zones worldwide.

42. Barry Goldwater became a widower in 1985, and in 1992 he married Susan Wechsler, a nurse 32 years his junior.

43. Barry Goldwater came to know former President Herbert Hoover, whose conservative politics he admired greatly.

44. Barry Goldwater became a Republican, promoted innovative business practices, and opposed the New Deal, especially because it fostered labor unions.

45. Barry Goldwater graduated from Staunton Military Academy, an elite private school in Virginia, and attended the University of Arizona for one year, where he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity.

46. In 1964, Barry Goldwater mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the hard-fought Republican presidential primaries.

47. Barry Goldwater had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.

48. Barry Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought with the conservative coalition against the New Deal coalition.

49. Barry Goldwater was a vocal opponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as he believed it to be an overreach by the federal government.