Richard L. "Dick" Thornburgh (1932-2020)
Rosslyn Farms, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
41st Governor of Pennsylvania (1979-87) and U.S. Attorney General (1988-91). As governor, he prioritized lower taxes, state debt reduction, job creation, and welfare reform. Oversaw emergency response to Three Mile Island accident in March 1979. As attorney general, he fought white-collar crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism. Led the effort for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Born and raised in Rosslyn Farms.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Born and raised in Rosslyn Farms, Dick Thornburgh rose to lead Pennsylvania as its 41st governor and later the nation's Department of Justice as U.S. Attorney General. Just months into his governorship, he steered the state's emergency response to the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the most serious in U.S. commercial history. As Attorney General he pressed prosecutions of white-collar crime and drug trafficking, and he championed the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Why it matters
Thornburgh's career links two defining chapters of modern America—the nuclear anxieties of the atomic age and the expansion of civil rights to Americans with disabilities.
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Related people
- · Richard L. "Dick" Thornburgh
Related events
- · Three Mile Island accident
- · Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Themes & tags
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