34 Facts About Dale Bumpers

Dale Leon Bumpers was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 38th Governor of Arkansas and in the United States Senate.

Dale Bumpers was counsel at the Washington office of law firm Arent Fox LLP, where his clients included Riceland Foods and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Dale Bumpers's parents died five days apart in March 1949 of injuries sustained in an automobile accident; the couple are interred at Nixon Cemetery in Franklin County.

Dale Bumpers attended public schools and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Dale Bumpers served in the United States Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946 during World War II.

Dale Bumpers graduated from Northwestern University Law School in Chicago, in 1951.

Dale Bumpers was admitted to the Arkansas bar in 1952 and began practicing law in his hometown that same year.

Dale Bumpers was from 1952 to 1970 the Charleston city attorney.

Dale Bumpers served as special justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1968.

Dale Bumpers lost his 1962 bid for the same state House seat once represented by his father, who had wanted to run for the United States House of Representatives but could not amass the funding to do so.

Dale Bumpers was virtually unknown when he announced his campaign for governor in 1970.

Dale Bumpers was often described as a new kind of Southern Democrat who would bring reform to his state and the Democratic Party.

Dale Bumpers accomplished this by reassigning 60 major agencies to 13 cabinet-level departments, which enhanced his decision-making power and implementation capacity.

Unlike Rockefeller, who could not overcome special interest groups, Dale Bumpers achieved this reorganization with remarkable success.

Dale Bumpers utilized the additional revenue to increase teacher salaries and improve schools, which helped him in a major voting bloc.

Dale Bumpers was elected to the United States Senate in 1974.

Dale Bumpers unseated the long-term incumbent J William Fulbright in the Democratic primary by a wide margin and then faced the Republican banker John Harris Jones.

Dale Bumpers polled 461,056 votes to Jones's 82,026, the weakest Republican showing since Fulbright won in 1944.

Clark accused Dale Bumpers of being "fuzzy on the issues" and challenged Dale Bumpers's support for gasoline rationing during the energy crisis.

Clark further claimed that Dale Bumpers had derided citizens of Newton County, a frequent Republican stronghold in Arkansas, as "stupid hill people".

In 1986, Dale Bumpers defeated his Republican opponent, later US Representative for Arkansas's 3rd congressional district and Governor Asa Hutchinson.

In 1998, when Dale Bumpers retired, the Democratic choice, former US Representative Blanche Lambert Lincoln of Arkansas's 1st congressional district, comfortably defeated the Republican nominee, Fay Boozman, a state senator who was later the Arkansas Department of Health director under Governor Huckabee.

Dale Bumpers was elected to the Senate four times, beginning with his huge victory over Fulbright, the veteran chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Dale Bumpers chaired the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship from 1987 until 1995, when the GOP took control of the Senate for a dozen years following the 1994 elections.

Dale Bumpers served as ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from 1997 until his retirement in 1999.

Dale Bumpers decided not to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, despite support from many colleagues, including Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, who ultimately contested the 1988 nomination won by Michael Dukakis.

Dale Bumpers gave an impassioned closing argument during the Senate trial.

The Service is proud to recognize the many contributions Senator Dale Bumpers has made to give many future generations the same opportunity to enjoy Arkansas' natural beauty as we have had.

Dale Bumpers is a giant among conservationists and a visionary who followed an unconventional path to set aside some of Arkansas' last wild places.

Dale Bumpers advised the school board to comply with the decision immediately.

Dale Bumpers opposed constitutional amendments throughout his Senate tenure and was critical of his Republican colleague Jesse Helms for attempting that route to enact conservative policy proposals.

However, Dale Bumpers said that he worked well with Republican leaders Howard Baker and Bob Dole.

Dale Bumpers had Alzheimer's disease and had sustained a broken hip shortly before his death.

Dale Bumpers would be cremated, with his inurnment taking place in the Columbarium of the First United Methodist Church in Charleston, Arkansas.