Nebraskans Honor Congressman Peter Hoagland
Former U.S. Congressman Peter Hoagland, who had served Nebraska state Legislature (from 1978 to 1986) and three terms as Nebraska’s second congressional district at the United States House of Representatives (from 1989 to 1995), died very recently – only last week, on Tuesday, the thirtieth of October 2007 – of complications brought on by Parkinson’s Disease. The sixty-five year old Nebraskan democrat had been suffering from the disease for the last five years; he left behind a widow, Barbara, and their five children.
Peter Hoagland was born in Omaha, Nebraska in the November of 1941, although his schooling was finished in Stanford University in California back in 1963. The former congressman also has a history of military service under his name; Hoagland had given two years of his life to the United States Army as a first lieutenant at the Vietnam War (from 1963 to 1965). He then went on to study law in Yale University, and in 1968, the same year he graduated, he passed his bar exam. From 1969 to 1970, he worked as one of Judge Oliver Gasch’s clerks at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He followed it up with a three-year stint (from 1970 to 1973) as a staff attorney in the District of Columbia Public Defender Service. After serving under the Nebraska Legislature for eight years, Hoagland decided to not run again, and instead sought a seat in the 101st Congress two years later.
As a congressman, Peter Hoagland earned a reputation for being an active liberal – a peculiarity, some would say, as the state of Nebraska is known to be very conservative. Nevertheless, Hoagland’s passionate and aggressive advocacy of the environment as well as liberal policies caused many to follow and support him wholeheartedly. He was also a member of the reform lobbying group Common Cause. After he lost his re-election in 1994, the Nebraskan moved to Washington D.C. to work in a law firm.
On the Saturday following his death (the third of November, 2007), hundreds of Nebraskans crowded into downtown Omaha to remember and honor Peter Hoagland. Current Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman had all United States and Nebraska State flags flown at half-mast. The funeral service was held at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.
U.S. Representative Lee Terry remembers Hoagland with admiration. “(He) was a strong voice for the Democratic Party, not only in Nebraska, but the Congress.” U.S. Senator Ben Nelson, on the other hand, seemed more wistful. “Peter always worked to do what he believed was right for his district and our state. He was a true leader, and while he left public service, he never left public life.”
