Thomas Howard Kean is an American businessman, academic administrator, and politician who served as the 48th governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990 and as president of Drew University from 1990 until 2005.
46 Facts About Thomas Kean
2.
Thomas Kean was born in New York City to a long line of New Jersey politicians and family of Dutch Americans.
3.
Thomas Kean's mother was Elizabeth and his father, Robert Kean, was a US Representative from 1939 until 1959.
4.
Thomas Kean is related to William Livingston, who was a delegate to the Continental Congress, the first governor of New Jersey, and is considered a founding father of New Jersey.
5.
Thomas Kean's mother, who is of partial Irish descent, is a descendant of John Neilson, a leading New Jersey Patriot during the American Revolutionary War.
6.
Thomas Kean met his future wife Deborah Bye at a party in Manhattan, and the couple began dating in October 1966.
7.
Bye and Thomas Kean married at the Old Drawyers Church in Odessa, Delaware, on June 3,1967.
8.
Thomas Kean was a longtime resident of Livingston, New Jersey, where he moved in 1967 during his first campaign for office.
9.
In 1967, running as a moderate Republican, Thomas Kean was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly.
10.
Thomas Kean ran with Philip D Kaltenbacher, a Short Hills Republican who had served as an aide to Assemblyman Irwin I Kimmelman from 1964 to 1966; Kimmelman later served as Attorney General in Kean's administration as New Jersey governor.
11.
At the start of the Assembly session in 1972, the New Jersey Assembly's then Democrat leadership sought to name S Howard Woodson of Trenton as Speaker until Assemblyman David Friedland made a deal as one of four Democrats who voted to give the minority Republicans control of the General Assembly, and Kean was elected as Assembly Speaker.
12.
In 1973, Thomas Kean served briefly as acting New Jersey governor.
13.
In 1977, Thomas Kean ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey.
14.
Thomas Kean was unable to obtain the endorsement of many county Republican chairmen, or from then US President Ford despite having served as Ford's campaign director for the state of New Jersey the previous year.
15.
Bateman defeated Thomas Kean and won the nomination, though Bateman went on to lose the general election to Brendan Byrne.
16.
Thomas Kean worked as a political commentator on New Jersey public television.
17.
Four years later, in 1981, Thomas Kean again ran for governor and emerged victorious.
18.
Thomas Kean won every municipality in the state except Audubon Park and Chesilhurst in Camden County and Roosevelt in Monmouth County.
19.
Thomas Kean began receiving national recognition following the launch of a multi-million dollar promotional campaign for New Jersey tourism, in television commercials promoting New Jersey as a tourist destination, that aired nationally during throughout his eight years as governor.
20.
In 1988, reflecting his stature as an up-and-coming national leader of the Republican Party and especially its moderate wing, Thomas Kean was asked to deliver the keynote speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans.
21.
In January 1990, unable to run for a third term due to New Jersey's constitutional term limit for its governor, Thomas Kean was succeeded as governor by James Florio.
22.
Thomas Kean left office in January 1990 as one of the most popular political figures in New Jersey political history.
23.
Thomas Kean believed that the cultural center had the power to revitalize Newark and strengthen the state as a whole.
24.
Thomas Kean has remained involved in advocacy for the arts years after his time as governor, criticizing arts funding cuts in 2007.
25.
Thomas Kean worked extensively with traditional Democratic constituencies, especially on urban policies.
26.
Thomas Kean divested New Jersey's public retirement funds from South Africa during apartheid, embraced the implementation of the statewide holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
27.
In 1990, following the end of his second gubernatorial term, Thomas Kean was named President of Drew University, a liberal arts university in Madison, New Jersey.
28.
Thomas Kean's considerable standing as a popular former governor of the state was helpful as he undertook upgrading of the university's campus and academic programs by stressing the primacy of teaching, the creative use of technology in the liberal arts, and the importance of international education.
29.
Thomas Kean was extremely popular among the student body; he would frequently eat lunch unannounced with students in the dining hall, and was a regular spectator at Drew sporting events.
30.
Thomas Kean served as Drew's president until 2005, and taught a highly selective political science seminar at the university.
31.
Thomas Kean advocated continued US aid to anti-communist resistance forces in Afghanistan, Angola, and to those engaged in supporting democratic change in the former Soviet Union.
32.
Thomas Kean quickly was appointed to the boards of several important foreign policy bodies, including the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy, which was heavily engaged in supporting democracy-building programs in former Eastern bloc and other nations around the world, and a Presidential advisory commission on a post-Castro Cuba, chaired by former US Presidential Republican candidate Steve Forbes.
33.
Several years later, in 1997, Thomas Kean was appointed as an advisory board member of President Clinton's One America Initiative and as an advisory board member for the Partnership for a Secure America.
34.
On November 19,2007, Thomas Kean endorsed John McCain in the 2008 presidential race.
35.
Thomas Kean served as co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
36.
Thomas Kean has served as chairman of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest health philanthropy; the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy; the Carnegie Corporation of New York; Educate America; the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation; MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership; and the Newark Alliance.
37.
Thomas Kean has served as a board member for several publicly traded companies, including Aramark, UnitedHealth Group, Hess Corporation, The Pepsi Bottling Group, CIT Group, and Franklin Templeton Investments.
38.
The backdating allegedly occurred with the knowledge and approval of the directors, including Thomas Kean, who sat on the company's compensation committee during three crucial years, according to The Wall Street Journal.
39.
From 1995 until 2018, Thomas Kean was a weekly columnist for The Star-Ledger, a Newark-based newspaper and the most widely circulated newspaper in the state.
40.
Thomas Kean is an advisor to, and has been inducted into, Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity, and is a partner in Quad Partners, a private equity firm that invests in the education industry.
41.
Some alleged that Thomas Kean did not have the depth of foreign policy and national security expertise needed to manage an investigation so integral to the future of American national security.
42.
The 95-minute video prominently featured video excerpts of Thomas Kean citing al-Qaeda as one of the most formidable security threats that the US had ever confronted, presumably cited with the intention of bolstering the morale of al-Qaeda supporters.
43.
Comments by Thomas Kean cited on the video include a reference to the fact that al-Qaeda remained as strong in 2007 as it was before the September 11,2001, attacks.
44.
Thomas Kean holds over 30 honorary degrees and numerous awards from environmental and educational organizations, including:.
45.
In 2013, Thomas Kean was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
46.
Thomas Kean met his future wife, Deborah Bye, at a party in Manhattan.