Richard G. Lugar is a fifth generation Hoosier. He served for 36 years in the United States Senate, 1976-2012, the longest Congressional tenure of service in Indiana history. He was the Republican leader of the Foreign Relations Committee, of which he was a former chair, and a member and former chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. From 1968-1975, he was mayor of Indianapolis.

Richard Lugar is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he served as co-president of the student body with Charlene Smeltzer to whom he was married on September 8, 1956. The Lugars have four sons and 13 grandchildren.

He attended Pembroke College, where he read PPE, as a Rhodes Scholar, and served as president of the Junior Common Room.

For over a half century, Lugar has managed his family’s 604 –acre Indiana corn, soybeans, and tree farm.

Senator Lugar was a leader in reducing the threat of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. In 1991, he forged a bipartisan partnership with then-Senate Armed Services Chairman, Sam Nunn (D-GA), in passing legislation founding Cooperative Threat Reduction with the former Soviet Union. To date, the Nunn-Lugar program has deactivated more than 7,200 Russian nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the United States.

In April, 2012, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth conferred on Senator Lugar the title of Honorary Knight Commander of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Senator Lugar and his wife Char live in McLean, Virginia.