George McGovern was born July 19, 1922 (104 years ago) in Avon, South Dakota. The McGovern family lived on the edge of poverty for much of the 1920s and 1930s.
Growing up so close to privation gave young George a lifelong sympathy for underpaid workers and struggling farmers. He was influenced by the currents of populism and agrarian unrest, as well as the teachings that sought to fight poverty, injustice, and ignorance.
McGovern was listening to a radio broadcast of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for a music appreciation class when he heard the news of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. In January 1942, he drove with nine other students to Omaha, Nebraska and volunteered to join the United States Army Air Forces.
As a B-24 pilot, McGovern flew 35 missions over German occupied Europe from an air base in Italy. He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for making a hazardous emergency landing and saving his crew.
After the war, McGovern earned degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) and Northwestern University. Later, he returned to DWU as a professor of history and political science.
In 1956 and 1958, McGovern was elected to the US House of Representatives from South Dakota. In 1962, 1968 and 1974, he was elected to the United States Senate.
In 1972, McGovern won the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States. He lost to the incumbent Richard Nixon by one of the biggest landslides in US history. However, I voted for McGovern, the first time I voted for a Democrat.
On October 15, 2012, McGovern died at the age of 90 in his native South Dakota.
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