Richard S Schweiker

Richard Schultz Schweiker was born in Norristown, Pa., on June 1, 1926, the son of Malcolm Schweiker and the former Blanche Schultz. After high school he joined the Navy and served on an aircraft carrier during World War II. He graduated with honors from Pennsylvania State University in 1950, and over the next decade rose in business to become president of the American Olean Tile Company. In 1955, he married the former Claire Coleman, a television personality in Philadelphia. She died in 2013. Besides his son Richard, he is survived by another son, Malcolm; three daughters, Lani Shelton, Kyle Hard and Kristi Carey; a sister, Sylvia Strasburg; 23 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, most of whom spent time with Mr. Schweiker in the week before his death, his son Richard said. Mr. Schweiker was president of a Washington-based lobbying and trade group for the life insurance industry for more than a decade after leaving the Reagan administration in 1983. Mr. Schweiker went to Washington in 1961 and served for two decades in Congress and two more years in the White House in an era of assassinations, war and sweeping social changes. As a House member for eight years, he was known as a moderate conservative. He was one of labor’s closest allies, but opposed gun control and the use of federal funds for abortions. He also supported prayers in public schools and in later years voted against busing to integrate schools. But in his 12 years in the Senate he became known as something of a liberal, a defender of financing for health agencies and medical research. In 1974, he sponsored landmark legislation to finance the National Commission on Diabetes, which created a long-term plan to fight the disease. Mr. Schweiker recently sold his house in McLean, Va., and had been living with a daughter in Herndon, Va.