David L Boren

David L. Boren, a popular reform-minded Democrat who led Oklahoma as its governor and then represented it for three terms in the United States Senate, where he was an influential voice on national intelligence, died on Thursday February 20 2025 at his home in Norman, Okla. He was 83. The son of an Oklahoma congressman, Mr. Boren rose from academic brilliance as a Rhodes scholar into a steppingstone political career as a state legislator (1967-75), the nation’s youngest governor (1975-79) and a member of the Senate (1979-94), where he became the longest serving chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence. His Sooner eminence grew further when he served as president of the University of Oklahoma. Shortly after graduating from law school in 1968, Mr. Boren had married Janna Lou Little, whose father, Reuel Little, ran for governor on the American Party ticket in 1970. The couple were divorced in 1976. In 1977, Mr. Boren married Molly W. Shi, an Oklahoma county judge. She survives him, along with two children from his first marriage, David Daniel Boren and Carrie Headington; and a number of grandchildren. His sister, Susan Boren-Dorman, died in 2020. Mr. Boren’s son, who goes by the name Daniel, was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2004 and served four terms before returning to private life.