Wolpe, Howard, 1939-2011

Howard Eliot Wolpe (November 3, 1939 – October 25, 2011) was an American academic, author, diplomat, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he notably served as the U.S. Representative from Michigan's 3rd congressional district from 1979 to 1993 and was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Michigan in 1994.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, he attended the public schools of Los Angeles, graduating from University High School there before earning a B.A. from Reed College and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wolpe taught at Western Michigan University from 1967 to 1972. From 1969 to 1972, Wolpe served as Kalamazoo City Commissioner; from 1973 to 1976, he served in the Michigan House of Representatives. After losing his 1976 bid for the U.S. House from Michigan's 3rd district, Wolpe worked as a regional representative to U.S. Senator Donald Riegle from 1976 to 1978. He was elected to the Ninety-sixth and the six succeeding Congresses from Michigan's 3rd district. A specialist in African politics for ten of his fourteen years in the Congress, Wolpe chaired the Subcommittee on Africa of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. As chair of the House Africa Subcommittee, Wolpe co-authored (with Rep. Ron Dellums and others) and managed legislation that imposed sanctions against South Africa, by over-riding President Ronald Reagan's veto of that sanctions legislation (the Comprehensive Anti-apartheid Act of 1986). He also authored and managed the passage of the African Famine Recovery and Development Act, a comprehensive rewrite in the 1980s of America's approach to development assistance in Africa that included the creation of the African Development Fund.

In 1992, Wolpe's Kalamazoo-based district was eliminated, and most of its territory, including his home, was merged with the district of three-term Republican Fred Upton. The reconfigured district was geographically more Upton's district than Wolpe's, prompting Wolpe to retire. In 1994, he won the Democratic nomination for Governor of Michigan. He initially asked former First Lady of Michigan Helen Milliken to be his running mate, but Milliken declined his offer. Wolpe then selected one of his former rivals in the Democratic primary, State Senator Debbie Stabenow, as his nominee for lieutenant governor. The Wolpe-Stabenow ticket lost the general election to incumbent Governor John Engler and Lieutenant Governor Connie Binsfeld, garnering only 38.5 percent of the vote. President Bill Clinton then appointed him as special envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes region. In this capacity, Howard supported peace talks that helped bring an end to longstanding civil wars in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He later served as a public policy scholar and director of the African Program and the Project on Leadership and Building State Capacity at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where he directed postconflict leadership training programs in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Liberia.

In 2009, President Obama appointed him special adviser for Africa’s Great Lakes region. Howard retired from the State Department a year later and moved to Saugatuck, Michigan, where he taught at WMU. Howard was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the boards of directors of the National Endowment for Democracy, Africare, and Pathfinders International, and on the advisory board of Coexistence International. He taught at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, and wrote extensively on Africa, American foreign policy, and the management of ethnic and racial conflict. Howard received the African American Institute’s Star Crystal Award for Excellence and the Sierra Club’s Lifetime Achievement Award.