Edmund S. Muskie (1914–1996)

Senate Years of Service: 1959–1980

Senator Muskie served for 22 years in the U.S. Senate from Maine and was extremely active in developing air pollution control legislation throughout the 1960s and 1970s. As chair of the Subcommittee on Environmental Pollution of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, Senator Muskie established himself as the Senate's leader in environmental legislation, shepherding the 1963 Clean Air Act and the 1965 Water Quality Act to passage.

Through these and subsequent laws, including the Clean Air Act of 1970 and its amendments in 1977, Senator Muskie left a legacy as a pioneer in the protection of the environment – and left the rest of the nation a great gift of environmental protection. He later served as Secretary of State under President Carter and was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Distinguished Service Award.