
Frank Hughes Murkowski (28 March 1933-) was a Republican US Senator from Alaska from 3 January 1981 to 2 December 2002 (succeeding Mike Gravel and preceding Lisa Murkowski) and Governor of Alaska from 2 December 2002 to 4 December 2006 (succeeding Tony Knowles and preceding Sarah Palin).
Biography[]
Frank Hughes Murkowski was born in Seattle, Washington in 1933, and he went to high school in Ketchikan, Alaska. He served in the US Coast Guard from 1955 to 1957, and he worked in banking before serving as the Republican Commissioner of Economic Development from 1966 to 1970, became President of the Alaska National Bank of the North in 1971 and headed the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce in 1977. He went on to serve in the US Senate from 1981 to 2002, failing to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drillling, opposing abortion, and opposing gun control and affirmative action. In 2002, he was elected Governor of Alaska, and he was widely criticized for appointing his daughter Lisa Murkowski to fill his vacant seat in the Senate. He left office in 2006 with a 19% approval rating,