Reubin O'Donovan Askew (11 September 1928-13 March 2014) was the Democratic Governor of Florida from 5 January 1971 to 2 January 1979, succeeding Claude R. Kirk Jr. and preceding Bob Graham.
Biography[]
Reubin Askew was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1928, and he served in the US Army from 1946 to 1948 and as a US Air Force intelligence officer during the Korean War before becoming a lawyer in Pensacola, Florida. He served in the State House from 1958 to 1962, in the State Senate from 1962 to 1970, as Governor from 1971 to 1979, and as Trade Representative from 1979 to 1980. Askew supported school desegregation, passed the state's first corporate tax, appointed several African-Americans to positions in state government, and mounted a failed presidential bid in 1984 and US Senate bid in 1988. He died in 2014.