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On September 6, 2001, President Bush appointed Danforth as
Special Envoy for Peace to Sudan in northern Africa, representing
the U.S. government in ongoing peace talks to help settle the 17
year old civil war between the northern and southern Sudanese.
Danforth represented the State of Missouri in
the United States Senate for 18 years.
Prior to his retirement from the Senate at the end of 1994,
Danforth ranked 21st in seniority among the 100 senators
and served on three key committees: the Committee on Finance;
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; and the Select
Committee on Intelligence.
While in the Senate, Danforth was active in
numerous efforts important to the State of Missouri and to the
nation including efforts to reign in the unbridled growth of
entitlements, reduce the deficit, encourage long-term economic
growth, improve education, reduce hunger and malnutrition throughout
the world, and increase production of affordable housing.
Danforth was elected Attorney General of
Missouri in 1968 in his first race for public office.
He was re-elected Attorney General in 1972.
He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976 and re-elected in
1982 and 1988. Danforth was the first U.S. Senator from Missouri to chair a
major legislative committee since World War I and the first
Republican in the history of the state elected to three terms as
U.S. Senator.
A fifth generation Missourian, Danforth was
born on September 5, 1936 in St. Louis, and raised in nearby
Clayton. He received
his secondary education a St. Louis Country
Day School and graduated with honors from Princeton
University in 1958. In
1963 he received a Bachelor of Divinity degree form Yale Divinity
School and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale Law School.
Before seeking public office, Danforth practiced law in New
York City and St. Louis.
He is ordained to the clergy of the Episcopal
Church. He has served
as honorary associate at St. Alban’s Church in Washington, a
member of the governing board of Washington Cathedral, honorary
Canon of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, associate priest at
the Church of the Holy Communion in University City, assistant
rector at the Church of St. Michael and St. George in Clayton,
associate rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Jefferson City,
assistant rector at the Church of the Epiphany in New York City, and assistant chaplain for
New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kattering Cancer Center.
He has received honorary degrees from the
University of Missouri-Columbia, Washington University, Lindenwood
College, Lewis and Clark College, Drury College,
Rockhurst College, Westminster College,
Culver-Stockton College, William Jewell College, Indiana Central
University, Southwest Baptist College, Maryville College, St. Louis
University, Virginia Theological Seminary, Harris-Stowe College, and
the College of the Holy Cross.
Danforth and his wife, the former Sally Dobson
of St. Louis, live in St. Louis County.
They have five children and thirteen
grandchildren.
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