Photo courtesy of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library
Then Vice-President George Bush stands with Representative William Clinger in an event held in Warren at the Woman’s Club in the 1980s. Clinger passed away on May 28 at the age of 92.
Longtime Warren County Congressman William Clinger has passed away.
According to his daughter, Clinger died at the age of 92 on May 28.
“We are devastated,” Bijou Clinger said in a Facebook post, “but know he is still noble, brave and hopeful.”
William Floyd Clinger, Jr. was born in Warren on April 4, 1929. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1951 and then served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1951 until 1955.
He worked at the New Process Co. from 1955 until 1962 until he went to law school at the University of Virginia.
Times Observer file photo
Congressman William Clinger at a campaign event. Clinger represented Warren County from 1979 until 1997.
Admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1965, Clinger worked in private practice here in Warren as well as in Washington under the auspices of the Economic Development Administration until his election to the 96th Congress in 1979.
His political engagement grew during that period as he served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania state constitutional convention in 1967 and then as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1972.
He would go on to serve in each Congress from the 96th through the 104th, retiring at the end of that Congress in January 1997.
One of his good friends in Warren was Bob Sokolski — it was the Sokolskis that actually introduced Clinger when he announced his candidacy for Congress.
“The space was open. I obviously knew him extremely well,” Sokolski said. “(He was) one of my best friends. He was my attorney and my company’s attorney.”
He praised Clinger’s work in that role and said that “made me think — if he were to become a Congressman, (he would) do a real good job at that also which he did do.
“I always found him to be a very reasonable person,” Sokolski said, calling it “easy to get behind him.”
He said Clinger ultimately retired from Congress because there “wasn’t enough non-partisanship stuff.”
To show that bipartisanship, Sokolski said Clinger was friends with both John Kasich, former Congressman and Republican governor of Ohio, and Al Gore.
Add Tom Ridge to that list.
Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor and Congressman, spoke highly of Clinger in a Twitter post.
“Bill Clinger was a kind, thoughtful and honorable man — a model of integrity, bipartisanship and civility that all those in public office would do well to emulate,” Ridge tweeted on Monday. “He was my congressional neighbor and I will always be grateful for his friendship.”
Sokolski said Clinger met his wife, Judy, at Chautauqua Institute — their parents both had homes there. Clinger’s father was in the oil industry in the county. They lived in Alexandria once he retired from Congress before moving to Florida.
But Chautauqua was always a happy place for them.
“Basically, they would go back every year to Chautauqua,” he explained “They had a home there. It was a big part of their life.”
He highlighted a speech Clinger gave on gerrymandering and dark money in politics as recently as a couple years ago at Chautauqua.
“He was active,” Sokolski said. “He’d had health problems for quite a while.”
Clinger was the last Congressman to live here and represent the area — the county has since been presented by John Peterson (Pleasantville) and Glenn Thompson (Centre County).
From 1979 to 1993, his district was Pensnylvnaia’s Twenty-Third, switching to the Fifth for his last two terms.
In the 104th Congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.
“You may not agree with his principles or his thinking but you knew where Bill Clinger stood,” Ash Khare said. “If he believes, he’s going to do that. You may or may not like it.”
Khare said the Warren post office is actually named after Clinger.
“I can tell you one thing,” Khare added. “In this day of politics the way politics is today, I don’t think people like Clinger can get elected…. He was a straight shooter, a moderate thinker.”
That may be best exemplified by a very public break with GOP standard bearer and former President Donald Trump.
He signed on to a letter endorsing Joe Biden last September and also broke ranks with Trump prior to the 2016 election.
About a month prior to the 2016 general election, Clinger was one of 30 former Republican members of Congress that signed off on a letter which suggested that Trump “has proven himself manifestly unqualified to be president.”
“We blew it by not encouraging others to run,” Clinger said when that letter was released. “He was the only anomaly with a totally different agenda. People were looking for change. There is a deep wellspring of anger…. He is crazy with some sort of a neurological problem. He is a narcissist. The party is in a very bad position…. It is very unfortunate. He has hijacked the Republican Party….”
Timothy Gay, a 1972 Warren Area High School graduate and Clinger’s original campaign manager and first congressional press secretary, remembered Clinger as a Renaissance man who roamed the halls of Congress.
“Bill Clinger was a kind and caring soul,” Gay said. “He was a Renaissance man with a great passion for public policy and thoughtful debate. Sadly, he was among the last of what is now a nearly extinct breed: an enlightened and compassionate Member of Congress for whom public service was an honor, not a blood sport.”
Gay also shared a story about Clinger’s choice in vehicles while he was campaigning for Congress for the first time. While one would think Clinger would have been traveling in style from stop to stop on the campaign trail, reality was a little bit different.
“Bill looked and behaved a lot like the Fred McMurray character in the ‘Absent-Minded Professor’ movies,” Gay said. “He could have afforded any car he wanted, but he chose to campaign in ’77 and ’78 in one of the ugliest vehicles ever made: a bright blue AMC Pacer that was always on the verge of breaking down. I think voters took a look at that car and concluded that Bill could be trusted with their tax dollars. Later, I was always embarrassed to see the Pacer in Bill’s space in the House parking garage but it didn’t bother him at all.”
Khare said he once organized a fundraiser for the county GOP that centered on “roasting” Clinger.
“Everybody was telling all kinds of goofy… Bill Clinger jokes.”
Khare added Clinger was never seriously challenged in an election until he decided not to run and said his staff always did a “very fine job” managing the district offices.
“He was good. He was principled,” he added. “He was an approachable guy.”
Michael E. Hill, Chautauqua Institution president, said the Chautauqua Institution family will miss Clinger, who served as the institution’s board president from 2000 to 2006.
“Bill Clinger was a towering figure in the life of our nation and of Chautauqua Institution,” Hill said. “As an elected official, he served our neighbors in Warren County with tenacity and grace. Current and future public servants would do well to look to his example of moral leadership. At Chautauqua, Bill’s steady hand as chair guided the Institution through some difficult days and prepared it for the heights of mission fulfillment we’re striving toward and realizing today. My heart goes out to Bill’s children Bijou, Will, Jim and Julia, and I join our Chautauqua family and regional community in both mourning a great loss and celebrating an extraordinary legacy. I adored the man, felt lucky to call him my friend, and will miss him greatly.”
“We are all pretty broken up by him leaving us but the outpouring of condolences and praise for him has been wonderful and somewhat comforting,” his daughter, Bijou Clinger, told the Times Observer.
