Attorney General: Richard L. Thornburgh

Richard Lewis Thornburgh was born on July 16, 1932, in Rosslyn Farms, Pennsylvania. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Yale University in 1954 and earned his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1957. Following law school, Thornburgh worked in private industry until 1959 when he joined a Pittsburgh law firm. In 1967, he was elected as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. From 1969 to 1975, Thornburgh was U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and was appointed Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division in 1975, serving two years in the latter position before returning to private practice. Pennsylvania elected Thornburgh as Governor in 1978, and he ultimately served two terms. He also taught courses at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and directed that school’s Institute of Politics from 1987 to 1988. 

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Thornburgh was sworn in as the 76th Attorney General of the United States on August 12, 1988. He continued in that office under President George H.W. Bush, serving until August 15, 1991. Thornburgh made an unsuccessful run for a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate and instead served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992 to 1993. In 1992, the American Legion honored Richard Thornburgh with its highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal. He was selected in 2001 as a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies of Science and Engineering. Thornburgh was the recipient of honorary degrees from over 30 colleges and universities. He was an emeritus trustee of the University of Pittsburgh at the time of his death on December 31, 2020.