Politics / Law
John Dingell
1926–2019 · politician, lawyer
Dearborn Democrat who represented Detroit and its western and Downriver suburbs for 59 years, the longest tenure in the history of Congress.
- Born
Colorado Springs, Colorado- Died
Dearborn, Michigan
aged 92- Birth name
- John David Dingell Jr.
- Also known as
- The Dean
- Detroit years
- 1930s–2019
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
John Dingell was born in Colorado in 1926, but his family soon returned to Michigan, where his father, John Dingell Sr., won Detroit's newly created 15th congressional district in 1932. The son grew up between Detroit and Washington, served in the Army in World War II, earned a law degree at Georgetown and worked as an assistant Wayne County prosecutor. When his father died in 1955, he won the seat himself and held it until 2015, representing parts of west Detroit, Dearborn, the Downriver suburbs, Ann Arbor and Monroe County. A powerful chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, he defended Detroit's automakers, helped write the 1990 Clean Air Act and pushed national health insurance. His early-1980s attacks on Japanese imports were criticized for feeding anti-Asian hostility in metro Detroit. His wife Debbie succeeded him; he died at home in Dearborn.
Highlights
- Longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history (1955–2015)
- Father and son represented southeast Michigan for 80 years
- Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (2014)
- Detroit's VA medical center is named after him
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial
John D. Dingell VA Medical Center
Detroit's Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Midtown, named in his honor.