Jake Garn Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Jake Garn (Senator)
Payload Specialist

PERSONAL DATA: Born in Richfield, Utah, on October 12, 1932. Married. Seven children and one grandchild.

EDUCATION: Attended the University of Utah, where he received a bachelor of science degree in business and finance.

EXPERIENCE: Senator Garn is a former insurance executive. He served in the U.S. Navy as a pilot. He also served in the Utah Air National Guard as a pilot and retired as a full Colonel in April 1979. He has flown more than 10,000 hours in military and private civilian aircraft.

Prior to his election to the Senate in 1974, Senator Garn served on the Salt Lake City Commission for 4 years and was elected Mayor in 1971. He was active in the Utah League of Cities and Towns and served as President in 1972. In 1974, he was First Vice President of the Nation l League of Cities and served as Honorary President in 1975.

Senator Garn was elected to a second term in the Senate in November 1980. He received 74% of the vote, the largest victory in a statewide race in Utah history.

Senator Garn is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and serves on three subcommittees: Housing and Urban Affairs, Financial Institutions, and International Finance and Monetary Policy. The senior Utah Senator also is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and serves as Chairman of the HUD-Independent Agencies Subcommittee. He serves on four other Appropriations subcommittees: Energy and Water Resources, Defense, Military Construction, and Interior. Senator Garn served as a member of the Republican leadership from 1979 to 1984 as Secretary of the Republican Conference.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Senator Garn flew as a payload specialist on STS-51D Discovery (April 12-19, 1985). STS-51D was launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. It's primary objective was to deploy two communications satellites, and to perform electrophoresis and echocardiograph operations in space in addition to a number of other experiments. At the conclusion of the mission, Senator Garn had traveled over 2.5 million miles in 108 Earth orbits, logging over 167 hours in space. Senator Garn is the first member of congress to fly in space.