Watergate Hearings Day 9: Maurice Stans and Herbert Porter (1973-06-12)

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Maurice Hubert Stans (March 22, 1908 – April 14, 1998) was an American accountant, civil servant, and political organizer who served as the 19th United States Secretary of Commerce from 1969 to 1972. He served as the finance chairman for the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, working for the re-election of Richard Nixon. He pleaded guilty to five counts for technical violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act that were revealed during the larger investigation into the Watergate scandal.
Early life and education

Stans was born on March 22, 1908, in Shakopee, Minnesota, the son of James Hubert Stans and Mathilda Stans (nee Nyssen). His father was the only child of Jan Hendrik Stans and Maria Catharina Crijns, a Belgian couple who immigrated to the United States in 1880.[1] Stans graduated from Shakopee High School in 1925. He worked at a local foundry before traveling to Chicago to find work with friend, Otto F. Schultz. The same year, he began work as a stenographer and bookkeeper for a Chicago importer, while attending evening classes at Northwestern University. In 1928 he joined the Chicago-based firm of Alexander Grant and Company, certified public accountants, and continued his part-time studies at Columbia University while working at the firm's New York City office.[2] He attended Columbia from 1928 to 1930.
Career

Stans was an executive partner with the Alexander Grant & Co. accounting firm in Chicago from 1940 until 1955. He was a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in New York, Ohio and Virginia. He was President of the American Institute of Accountants from 1954 to 1955 and won the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession in 1954. He was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1960.[2][3][4]
Public servant under Eisenhower and Nixon
External videos
video icon 1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-13; Part 1 of 3, 1:36:09, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC[5]

He later served as U.S. deputy postmaster general from 1955 to 1957, in the Dwight Eisenhower administration. He served as deputy director of the Bureau of the Budget from 1957 to 1958, and director of the Bureau of the Budget from 1958 to 1961, still under Eisenhower. He joined the Nixon administration as secretary of commerce from 1969 to 1972. In 1961, Stans was one of the founders of the African Wildlife Foundation.[6]
Watergate
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Committee for the Re-Election of the President Fred LaRue Jeb Stuart Magruder Robert Mardian John N. Mitchell Kenneth Parkinson Hugh W. Sloan Jr. Maurice Stans

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In mid-February 1972, Stans resigned as the secretary of commerce to chair the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Money that he raised for the campaign was clearly used to finance some of the illegal Watergate activities. Stans denied any knowledge of what the money was used for, only that it was authorized to be spent.[7]

On March 12, 1975, Stans pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the reporting sections of the Federal Election Campaign Act and two counts of accepting illegal campaign contributions. He was fined $5,000.[8] The convictions were related to improperly giving campaign funds to G. Gordon Liddy, though Stans insisted that his guilt ended there and that he was not aware of Liddy's plan to use the money for what became the Watergate break in.[8][9]

He later authored a book, The Terrors of Justice: The Untold Side of Watergate, in which he detailed his side of the Watergate story.
Personal life

Stans died at the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, on April 14, 1998, at age 90, from complications of congestive heart failure.
References

De Nederlandsche leeuw. Koninklijk Nederlandsch Genootschap voor Geslacht- en Wapenkunde. 1969. pp. k. 217–218.
"Maurice Stans papers". Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
"Biography of Maurice H. Stans". Ohio State University.
"Membership in Accounting Hall of Fame". Ohio State University Fisher. Archived from the original on 2016-07-14. Retrieved 2014-10-20.
"1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-06-13; Part 1 of 3". Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. June 13, 1973. Retrieved January 19, 2018. Episode Guide
Bonner, Raymond (1993). At the hand of man: peril and hope for Africa's wildlife. Knopf. pp. 56–57. ISBN 0-679-40008-7.
"Watergate case of 'misguided loyalty' -- Maurice Stans". UPI. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
David Rohde (1998-04-15). "Maurice Stans Dies at 90; Led Nixon Commerce Dept". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-03-24.

ELIZABETH WHARTON (June 14, 1982). "Watergate case of 'misguided loyalty' -- Maurice Stans". upi.com.

External links

Papers of Maurice H. Stans, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
Appearances on C-SPAN

Political offices
Preceded by
Percival Brundage
Director of the Bureau of the Budget
1958–1961 Succeeded by
David E. Bell
Preceded by
Cyrus Smith
United States Secretary of Commerce
1969–1972 Succeeded by
Peter Peterson

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United States Secretaries of Commerce
Secretaries of Commerce and Labor

Cortelyou Metcalf Straus Nagel

Seal of the United States Department of Commerce
Secretaries of Commerce

Redfield Alexander Hoover Whiting Lamont Chapin Roper Hopkins Jones Wallace Harriman Sawyer Weeks Strauss Mueller Hodges Connor Trowbridge Smith Stans Peterson Dent Morton Richardson Kreps Klutznick Baldrige Verity Mosbacher Franklin Brown Kantor Daley Mineta Evans Gutierrez Locke Bryson Pritzker Ross Raimondo

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Directors of the United States Office of Management and Budget

Dawes Lord Roop Douglas D. W. Bell Smith Webb Pace Lawton Dodge Hughes Brundage Stans D. E. Bell Gordon Schultze Zwick Mayo Shultz Weinberger Ash Lynn Lance McIntyre Stockman Miller Wright Darman Panetta Rivlin Raines Lew Daniels Bolten Portman Nussle Orszag Lew Burwell Donovan Mulvaney Vought Young

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Cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)
Cabinet
Vice President

Richard Nixon (1953–1961)

Secretary of State

John Foster Dulles (1953–1959) Christian Herter (1959–1961)

Secretary of the Treasury

George M. Humphrey (1953–1957) Robert B. Anderson (1957–1961)

Secretary of Defense

Charles Erwin Wilson (1953–1957) Neil H. McElroy (1957–1959) Thomas S. Gates Jr. (1959–1961)

Attorney General

Herbert Brownell Jr. (1953–1957) William P. Rogers (1957–1961)

Postmaster General

Arthur Summerfield (1953–1961)

Secretary of the Interior

Douglas McKay (1953–1956) Fred A. Seaton (1956–1961)

Secretary of Agriculture

Ezra Taft Benson (1953–1961)

Secretary of Commerce

Sinclair Weeks (1953–1958) Frederick H. Mueller (1959–1961)

Secretary of Labor

Martin Patrick Durkin (1953) James P. Mitchell (1953–1961)

Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare

Oveta Culp Hobby (1953–1955) Marion B. Folsom (1955–1958) Arthur Flemming (1958–1961)

Cabinet-level
Director of the Bureau of the Budget

Joseph Dodge (1953–1954) Rowland Hughes (1954–1956) Percival Brundage (1956–1958) Maurice Stans (1958–1961)

Ambassador to the United Nations

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1953–1960) James Jeremiah Wadsworth (1960–1961)

Director of the Mutual Security Agency

Harold Stassen (1953)

Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization

Arthur Flemming (1953–1957) Gordon Gray (1957–1958)

Administrator of the Federal Civil Defense Administration

Val Peterson (1953–1957) Leo Hoegh (1957–1958)

Director of the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization

Leo Hoegh (1958–1961)

Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission

John A. McCone (1958–1961)

White House Chief of Staff

Sherman Adams (1953–1958) Wilton Persons (1958–1961)

White House Deputy Chief of Staff

Wilton Persons (1953–1958) Gerald D. Morgan (1958–1961)

White House Cabinet Secretary

Maxwell M. Rabb (1954–1958) Robert Keith Gray (1958–1961)

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Cabinet of President Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
Cabinet
Vice President

Spiro Agnew (1969–1973) None (1973) Gerald Ford (1973–1974)

Secretary of State

William P. Rogers (1969–1973) Henry Kissinger (1973–1974)

Secretary of the Treasury

David M. Kennedy (1969–1971) John Connally (1971–1972) George Shultz (1972–1974) William E. Simon (1974)

Secretary of Defense

Melvin Laird (1969–1973) Elliot Richardson (1973) James R. Schlesinger (1973–1974)

Attorney General

John N. Mitchell (1969–1972) Richard Kleindienst (1972–1973) Elliot Richardson (1973) William B. Saxbe (1974)

Postmaster General

Winton M. Blount (1969–1971)

Secretary of the Interior

Wally Hickel (1969–1970) Rogers Morton (1971–1974)

Secretary of Agriculture

Clifford M. Hardin (1969–1971) Earl Butz (1971–1974)

Secretary of Commerce

Maurice Stans (1969–1972) Peter G. Peterson (1972–1973) Frederick B. Dent (1973–1974)

Secretary of Labor

George Shultz (1969–1970) James Day Hodgson (1970–1973) Peter J. Brennan (1973–1974)

Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare

Robert Finch (1969–1970) Elliot Richardson (1970–1973) Caspar Weinberger (1973–1974)

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

George W. Romney (1969–1973) James Thomas Lynn (1973–1974)

Secretary of Transportation

John A. Volpe (1969–1973) Claude Brinegar (1973–1974)

Cabinet-level
Director of the Bureau of the Budget

Robert P. Mayo (1969–1970)

Director of the Office of Management and Budget

George Shultz (1970–1972) Caspar Weinberger (1972–1973) Roy Ash (1973–1974)

Ambassador to the United Nations

Charles Yost (1969–1971) George H. W. Bush (1971–1973) John A. Scali (1973–1974)

Counselor to the President

Arthur F. Burns (1969) Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1969–1970) Bryce Harlow (1969–1970) Robert Finch (1970–1972) Donald Rumsfeld (1970–1971) Anne L. Armstrong (1973–1974) Dean Burch (1974) Kenneth Rush (1974)

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Categories:

1908 births1998 deaths20th-century American politiciansAmerican accountantsCalifornia politicians convicted of crimesCalifornia RepublicansDirectors of the Office of Management and BudgetEisenhower administration cabinet membersIllinois RepublicansMembers of the Committee for the Re-Election of the PresidentNew York (state) RepublicansNixon administration cabinet membersPeople convicted in the Watergate scandalPeople from Shakopee, MinnesotaUnited States Secretaries of CommerceWriters from Minnesota

Herbert L. "Bart" Porter was a campaign aide to U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.
Early life

At University of Southern California, he was a member of Trojans for Representative Government with future Watergate scandal participants Dwight L. Chapin, Tim Elbourne, Donald Segretti, Gordon C. Strachan, and Ron Ziegler.
Watergate

On January 28, 1974, Porter pleaded guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI during the early stages of the Watergate investigation.[1]
References

"The Other Nixon Watergate Men". Time magazine. March 11, 1974. Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-30.

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