William Dodd Hathaway

William Dodd Hathaway was born in Cambridge, Mass., on Feb. 21, 1924, and grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Boston. He enlisted in the Army in 1942 and served as navigator on a B-24 bomber that was shot down on a bombing run on German oil refineries in Romania. He was wounded and held prisoner by the Germans for three months. He was awarded several medals, including the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross, and was discharged as a captain in the Army Air Forces. He graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law School, then joined a private law practice in Lewiston, Me. Mr. Hathaway was elected to the House in 1964 and re-elected three times. His election to the United States Senate from Maine in 1972 ended the career of his Republican opponent, Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman elected to both houses of Congress. In 1978, he was defeated in his bid for a second term by William Cohen, a Republican who was later defense secretary in the administration of President Bill Clinton. Mr. Hathaway then worked as a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington until President George Bush named him to the Federal Maritime Commission in 1990. He was the panel’s chairman from 1993 to 1996.