John Tower

Tower was born in Houston, the son of Joe Z. Tower (1898–1970) and Beryl Goodwin Tower (1898–1990). The family often moved throughout East Texas due to Joe's career as a Methodist minister.[2]

Having attended public schools in Houston and Beaumont, Texas, Tower graduated from Beaumont High School in 1942.[2] After high school, he enrolled at Southwestern University in fall 1942.[2] In June 1943, Tower paused his college studies to serve in the United States Navy during the Pacific Theater of World War II on an LCS(L) amphibious gunboat.[2]

In March 1946, Tower was discharged from the Navy ranked seaman first class and resumed his studies at Southwestern.[2] He graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.[2] While at Southwestern, Tower was a member of the Iota chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and would later serve the organization in significant alumnus volunteer roles.[3]

Tower worked as a radio announcer for country music station KTAE in Taylor, northeast of Austin, during college and for some time afterward.[2] Tower continued his military service in the United States Naval Reserve until retiring in 1989 with the rank of master chief's boatswain mate.[2]

In 1949, he began graduate studies in political science at Southern Methodist University and worked part time as an insurance agent. Then in 1951, Tower became an assistant professor of political science at Midwestern University (now Midwestern State University), a job he held until 1960. In 1952 and 1953, he pursued graduate coursework at the London School of Economics and conducted field research on the organization of the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom. His research was presented in his thesis, The Conservative Worker in Britain. He received his Master of Arts degree from SMU in 1953.[2]

Although raised as a Southern Democrat, Tower became a Republican in college about 1951. He rose quickly through the ranks of the Texas Republican Party; he was an unsuccessful candidate for representative to the Texas House of Representatives for the 18th district in 1954. He was a delegate to the 1956 Republican National Convention. In the 1956 presidential election, he was the campaign manager for Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 23rd Senatorial District.

Tower delivers the Tower Report to President Reagan in the White House Cabinet Room, Edmund Muskie at right, 1987.

According to The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel's Superspy[16] by Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon, Tower became the liaison for Robert Maxwell, a British publishing mogul and super-agent for Mossad, to the White House and to US government operations. The relationship began in 1984, and the soon-to-be retired Tower "told Maxwell that his fee as Maxwell's personal consultant would be $200,000." Tower received his fee in four separate payments of $50,000 into a Swiss bank account. Tower arranged for Maxwell to meet with leadership of Sandia National Laboratories, a US nuclear lab. Maxwell sold to Sandia a copy of PROMIS software that had a backdoor which was accessible by Israeli intelligence, giving nuclear details to Israel. Shortly after retirement from the Senate, in 1985, Tower took Maxwell's request for American help in arming Iran, and relayed it to President Reagan as a means to trade for American hostages held in Lebanon. "Two days later the former Senator reported to Maxwell that his meeting with President Reagan had produced a positive response."

Tower retired from the Senate after nearly twenty-four years in office. He continued to be involved in national politics, advising the campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Two weeks after his leaving office, Tower was named chief United States negotiator at the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva, Switzerland. Tower resigned from this office in 1987, and for a time was a professor at Southern Methodist University. He became a consultant with Tower, Eggers, and Greene Consulting from 1987 until his death in 1991.

In November 1986, President Reagan asked Tower to chair the President's Special Review Board to study the action of the National Security Council and its staff during the Iran–Contra affair. The board, which became known as the Tower Commission, issued its report on February 26, 1987. The report was highly critical of the Reagan administration and of the National Security Council's dealings with both Iran and the Nicaraguan Contras.

In 1989, Tower was President George H. W. Bush's choice to become Secretary of Defense. In a stunning move, particularly since Tower was himself a former Senate colleague, the Senate rejected his nomination. The largest factors were concern about possible conflicts of interest and Tower's personal life, in particular allegations of alcohol abuse and womanizing.[17][18] The Senate vote was 47–53,[19] and it marked the first time that the Senate had rejected a Cabinet nominee of a newly elected president.[20]

As The New York Times reported in his obituary, "Mr. Tower's repudiation by his former colleagues, who rejected him as President Bush's nominee for Secretary of Defense after public allegations of womanizing and heavy drinking, left a bitterness that could not be assuaged. In the normally clubby Senate, Mr. Tower was regarded by some colleagues as a gut fighter who did not suffer fools gladly, and some lawmakers indicated that they were only too pleased to rebuke him."[18]

In response to the alcohol allegations, Tower told The New York Times in 1990: "Have I ever drunk to excess? Yes. Am I alcohol-dependent? No. Have I always been a good boy? Of course not. But I've never done anything disqualifying. That's the point."[18] The FBI background check indicated that Tower was not an alcoholic but had abused alcohol, albeit with much diminished alcohol consumption beginning in 1983, though continuing to sporadically use alcohol.[21]

After Tower's defeat, he was named chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Dick Cheney, then a Representative from Wyoming and the House Minority Whip, was later confirmed as Secretary of Defense.

While a professor at Midwestern State University, Tower met Joza Lou Bullington, whom he married in 1952. A native of San Diego, California, Lou was reared in Wichita Falls and was the organist at the Towers' church. She was five years his senior.

John and Lou Tower had three children during their years in Wichita Falls born in three consecutive years: Penny (1954), Marian (1955–1991), and Jeanne (1956). The couple divorced in 1976. Following his divorce from Lou, who remained single for the rest of her life, Tower married Lilla Burt Cummings in 1977. The couple separated in 1985 and divorced on July 2, 1986.

John Tower cenotaph at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas

On April 5, 1991, Tower was aboard Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 when it crashed while on approach for landing at Brunswick, Georgia. The crash instantly killed everyone on board, including Tower and his middle daughter, Marian, the astronaut Sonny Carter, and twenty others.[22] An investigation determined that the crash resulted from failure of the plane's propeller control unit.[23]

Tower and his daughter are buried together at the family plot of the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas. A cenotaph in Tower's honor was erected at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. Tower's personal and political life are chronicled in his autobiography, Consequences: A Personal and Political Memoir, published a few months before his death. He donated his papers to his alma mater, Southwestern University.[24]

• Tower Amendment
• Unsuccessful nominations to the Cabinet of the United States
• List of members of the American Legion

• United States Congress. "John Tower (id: T000322)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-02-08
• Handbook of Texas article on John Tower
• Oral History Interviews with John Tower, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2001-11-16)
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Southwestern University and SMU's John G. Tower Digital Media Collection contains videos and audios by John Tower throughout his career.
• Booknotes interview with Roger Gittines on Consequences: John G. Tower, A Personal and Political Memoir, June 30, 1991.
• John G. Tower Papers Archived August 17, 2021, at the Wayback Machine – Official repository for John Tower's Senate and personal papers, Special Collections, Southwestern University.
• Speech by John Tower given on November 11, 1970. Audio recording from The University of Alabama's Emphasis Symposium on Contemporary Issues
• Brunswick, GA Commuter Plane Crash Kills John Tower, Sonny Carter, and 21 others, Apr 1991 article at GenDisasters.com