Dick Cheney

Cheney, Richard "Dick" B.

1941 -

Washington, D.C./Casper, WY

www.whitehouse.gov/vicepresident/

Biographical and Professional Information

Richard Bruce Cheney has long been called "Washington's best-kept secret," a "White House hired gun" and "an iron hand in a velvet glove" by political observers who watched his meteoric rise from congressional intern in 1968 to White House chief of staff, the top post in President Ford's administration seven years later. At 34, Cheney was the youngest presidential chief of staff in history. The Lincoln, Nebraska native was the eldest of three children. His father, who worked for 40 years in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, moved his family to Wyoming, where "Dick" graduated from Natrona County High School in Casper. He then majored in political science at the University of Wyoming where he earned his master's degree before transferring to Wisconsin to become a Ph.D candidate in 1968. His public service career began in 1965 as an intern in the Wyoming legislature. As a result, he won a fellowship from the National Center for Education in Politics to intern on the staff of Governor Warren Knowles of Wisconsin the following year, and under Congressman William Steiger (R-Wisc) the next. Steiger loaned Cheney to Donald Rumsfeld when Steiger was tapped to head the office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in Washington. Cheney and Rumsfeld formed a close working relationship until President Nixon appointed Rumsfeld as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Two months after Nixon's resignation, Cheney became Rumsfeld's deputy chief of staff as well as Ford's confidant and advisor. A year after Gerald Ford lost his election to Jimmy Carter, Cheney, who had returned to Wyoming with his family, decided to run for Teno Roncalio's soon-to-be-vacated congressional seat. He won the election following the first of several heart attacks. The rest is political history. (Source: Westerners by Jean Henry-Mead)