Birch E Bayh

Birch Bayh, the liberal former senator from Indiana whose work in Congress had an enduring impact on American life — in protecting women from sex discrimination in education, guaranteeing 18-year-olds the right to vote and providing for the removal of a sitting president — died on Thursday March 14 2019 at his home in Easton, Md. He was 91. The cause was pneumonia, the family said in a statement announcing his death. Senator Bayh is a partner in the Legislative and Regulatory Group of Venable’s Government Division. He is an expert in the legislative process, having represented the State of Indiana for 18 years in the U.S. Senate, followed by a 20 year law career representing individuals, corporate clients, and public entities before all three branches of government. Senator Bayh was a Member of the United States Senate from 1962-1980. During his Senate career, he served on the Judiciary Committee, the Appropriations Committee, and the Environment and Public Works Committee. He served as Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, and the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution. Senator Bayh also chaired the National Alcohol Fuels Commission and the Office of Technology Assessment Study on the Patent System. Over the years Senator Bayh has served as chairman of the AMTRAK Labor/Management Productivity Council; the Mental Health Association’s National Commission on the Insanity Defense; the University of Virginia Commission on Presidential Disability & the Twenty-Fifth Amendment; and the National Institute Against Prejudice and Violence. He has also served as a member of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Venable LLP (or its predecessor) since 2001. Mr. Bayh was a partner in the law firm of Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP from 1998 to 2001 and served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1963 to 1981. A director of the company or its predecessor since 1993. Member of our Governance and Nominating Committees. Birch Evans Bayh Jr. was born on Jan. 22, 1928, in Terre Haute, Ind., to Leah (Hollingsworth) Bayh, a high school teacher, and Birch Bayh Sr., a former head basketball coach and athletic director at what is now Indiana State University and a longtime specialist in physical education. Birch Jr. had a younger sister, Mary Alice. He graduated from Purdue University in 1951 and from the Indiana University School of Law in 1960. Marvella (Hern) Bayh, his first wife, died in 1979 at 46. He is survived by a son from that marriage, Birch Evans Bayh III, a former governor of Indiana and senator from that state who is known as Evan; and two grandchildren. He is also survived by his second wife, Katherine (Halpin) Bayh, known as Kitty, and their son, Christopher.