1. Dennis Alan Smith was born on January 19,1938 and is an American businessman and former United States congressman from the state of Oregon.
19 Facts About Denny Smith
1. 2.
Dennis Denny Smith was born in the Eastern Oregon city of Ontario, Oregon, on January 19,1938.
3.
Denny Smith joined the United States Air Force in 1958, and served until 1960, when he joined the Oregon Air National Guard.
4.
Denny Smith then earned a bachelor of arts degree from Willamette in 1961.
5.
Denny Smith returned to the Air Force in 1962 and remained there until 1967, serving as a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War.
6.
Denny Smith remained in the aviation field as a flight engineer and co-pilot for a commercial airline, flying from 1967 until 1976.
7.
Denny Smith worked for Pan American Airlines, and in 1974 was chosen by fellow employees to serve as the union's lobbyist in Washington, DC.
8.
Denny Smith was inducted into the Oregon Aviation Hall of Honor in 2009.
9.
Denny Smith was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1980 to represent Oregon's 2nd congressional district as a Republican.
10.
Denny Smith defeated 12-term Democrat Al Ullman by only 3,700 votes.
11.
Denny Smith was undoubtedly helped by Ronald Reagan winning every county in the sprawling district.
12.
Denny Smith was elected from this district in 1982 and was reelected three more times.
13.
In 1994, Denny Smith was the Republican nominee for Governor of Oregon, but lost to Democratic state Senate President John Kitzhaber.
14.
Denny Smith was the Republican National Committeeman for Oregon up until 2000.
15.
Denny Smith is the chairman of Eagle Newspapers, a printing and publishing company in the Pacific Northwest.
16.
Denny Smith was inducted by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association into the Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2012.
17.
Denny Smith married Sandra in 1962 and was divorced in 1967, after the couple had one son.
18.
Denny Smith married Kathleen Barrett, and they had three children, divorcing in 1986.
19.
The only son of former Oregon Governor Elmo Denny Smith and his wife Dorothy, he is a cousin of Steve Symms, a former congressman and Senator from Idaho.