The Twenty - Five Things That Made Genesee County Famous
Number 2
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| Charlotte and Barber Conable Summer 2003 From the Collection of the Holland Land Office Museum |
Barber B. Conable, Jr.
Conable was born in Warsaw, Wyoming County, New York on November 2, 1922 to Barber Conable, Sr. and Agnes Gouinlock Conable. The elder Conable was a country lawyer in Wyoming County and became Wyoming County Judge the year after Barber, Jr. was born.
Growing up, Conable was active in school activities and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. As an adult, because of his lifetime achievements, he received the rare honor of being a Distinguished Eagle Scout. After graduating from Warsaw High School in 1939, he went to Cornell University where he majored in medieval history. He earned a bachelor's degree in less than three years and graduated in August 1942. In December of that year, he entered the United States Marine Corps, was shipped off to basic training at Paris Island, South Carolina and then to Marine Corps Officers Training School in Quantico, Virginia. He served in the Pacific Theatre and fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Following his service he returned to Cornell to study law. He graduated from law school in 1948, finishing third in his class. As an attorney, his first position was at a large prestigious law firm in Buffalo. He hated big city life, so he decided to hang up his shingle and open a small practice in Batavia, New York. His law partner was his father, who retired after more than 30 years on the bench. Because his older brother, John, succeeded his father as judge, they opened the firm in Batavia to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
Shortly before he left for Batavia, he met a young Cornell alumnus at the Cornell Club in Buffalo. Charlotte Williams was the director of Christian Education at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. While at Cornell, she had served as president of her junior and senior class and president of her sorority. The two shared many social and political interests. They became engaged in May 1952 and married in Buffalo on September 13th of that year.
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| Conable Campaign Poster 1962 From the Collection of the Holland Land Office Museum (Click on the photo for a larger image) |
After the newlyweds settled into life in Batavia, they became active in community affairs. He ran three major fund drives the first six months he was in Batavia, and in December 1952, became involved in local Republican politics. Conable served as a Batavia Republican committee member from 1953 to 1959. He left the committee because the family purchased a restored farm house in the village of Alexander. With the move to Alexander, he became involved in Genesee County politics and organized the Genesee County Republican campaigns of 1960. In Genesee County, Richard Nixon won the election over John F. Kennedy with 59% of the vote.
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Conable on the campaign trail |
Conable became the leader of a group of young Genesee County Republicans. In 1962, unhappy with the current state senator, Conable decided to make his first run for political office. Applying the tactics he learned from his father's campaigns, Conable was able to unseat a powerful incumbent.
He served in the State Senate for one term when the opportunity came to run for the House of Representatives. He won not only that election but also the next ten, serving from 1965 to 1986. While in Congress, he was elected the "most respected" member of Congress by his peers. He was a member of the Republican House leadership and was for many years ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Following his retirement from the House in 1986, he took a position as Distinguished University Professor at the University of Rochester. He was also offered the Presidency at Bucknell University, teaching positions at Harvard, Yale and Stanford and offered numerous positions with Washington D.C. law firms to be a lobbyist, but he didn't want to be an "exhibit."
In February 1986, Treasury Secretary James Baker called Conable and asked him if he could submit his name as a nominee to the position of President of the World Bank. Conable didn't want it, but Baker told him it was a political move and nothing would come of it. Two weeks later, Baker called back and told Conable that he was the only selection the committee could agree on, and if he didn't take the position, the position would go to a European. So, for the next five years, the Conables toured the world as representatives of the World Bank.
Again, the Conables retired back to Genesee County. They became involved in community affairs. In honor of Mr. and Mrs. Conable, the new technology center at Genesee Community College was named for them. Mr. Conable died in Sarasota, Florida on November 30, 2003 and is buried in the Alexander Village Cemetery in Alexander.
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Barber Conable and Richard Nixon |
How Does He Make Genesee County Famous
Political scientist Charles O. Jones, said, "Barber Conable was just about everybody's idea of what a Congressman should be."
During the Watergate crisis, Conable was the first to use the phrase, the "smoking gun" in reference to the White House tapes. Conable gave Nixon the benefit of the doubt up until he found out about the tapes. Conable was an important member of the Republican leadership during the Nixon presidency. In the Time magazine cover story of January 15, 1973, it listed Conable as one of the 20 most important leaders in Congress.
In 2000, Pensions and Investments magazine chose Conable as one of the runners-up for the Men of the Century. He was selected for originating the 401(k) pension plan in 1979. He inserted a provision into Section 401 of the Internal Revenue Code. The section, designated Section (K) was inserted to protect constituent companies from IRS interference. He wanted to protect his constituents who worked at Eastman Kodak so that their profit sharing and pension plans couldn't be taken away from them by taxes and the IRS. Legend has is that the K in 401(K) stands for Kodak.
Barber Conable started a revolution: the home brewing revolution in the 1980s. In 1979, Conable sponsored a bill to legalize home brewing. The bill removed the bootlegging stigma from home brewing. It allowed home brewing to become a hobby and the hobby exploded. Hobbyists became really good brewing beer and micro-breweries started popping up all over the country. Today, the largest American owned brewery, the Boston Brewing Company (makers of Samuel Adams) owes its existence to this bill.
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| A Citizen in Public Service: Barber Conable Exhibit at the Holland Land Office Museum |
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Barber Conable's Congressional Biography
Barber Conable's Page at the World Bank
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Window on Congress: A Congressional Biography of Barber B. Conable by James S. Flemingis available in the Museum Store. The price of the hardcover book is $29.95. Call us at (585) 343-4727 to order and we'll ship it anywhere in the United States! |
Back to Number 3: The Disappearance of William Morgan