
Gaylord Anton Nelson (4 June 1916-3 July 2005) was the Democratic Governor of Wisconsin from 5 January 1959 to 7 January 1963 (succeeding Vernon Wallace Thomson and preceding John W. Reynolds Jr.) and a US Senator from 8 January 1963 to 3 January 1981 (succeeding Alexander Wiley and preceding Bob Kasten).
Biography[]
Gaylord Anton Nelson was born in Clear Lake, Wisconsin in 1916, and he practiced law before serving in the US Army during World War II and fighting at the Battle of Okinawa. After the war, Nelson served in the state senate from 1949 to 1959, as Governor from 1959 to 1963, and in the US Senate from 1963 to 1981. Nelson was a staunch supporter of environmentalism, founding Earth Day on 22 April 1970 with the objective of teaching students about environmental issues. He also supported consumer rights, civil rights, and civil liberties and opposed the Vietnam War, and he retired from politics in 1980 and died in Kensington, Maryland in 2005. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 in recognition of his environmental work both as a politician and as counselor for The Wilderness Society.