James B. Edwards

James Burrows Edwards
110th Governor of South Carolina
In office 1975–1979
Preceded by	John C. West
Succeeded by	Richard Riley
3rd United States Secretary of Energy
In office January 23, 1981 – November 5, 1982
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Charles Duncan, Jr.
Succeeded by	Donald P. Hodel
Personal details
Born	June 24, 1927 (1927-06-24) Hawthorne, Florida
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	College of Charleston University of Louisville University of Pennsylvania
Profession	Oral Surgeon
Military service
Service/branch	United States Maritime Service United States Navy
Battles/wars	World War II

James Burrows Edwards (born June 24, 1927) is a politician and administrator from South Carolina. He was the first Republican to be elected the Governor of South Carolina since Reconstruction.

Early life and career

Edwards was born in Hawthorne, Florida, and was an officer in the U.S. Maritime Service during World War II. He continued his service in the U.S. Naval Reserve after the war. Edwards received a bachelors degree in 1950 at the College of Charleston where he was a brother of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. He received a D.M.D. in 1955 from the University of Louisville, and did some post-graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Returning to Charleston, Edwards established a dentistry practice in 1960 that specialized in oral surgery. Consequently, he held a variety of positions associated with dentistry in the community.

Political career

In 1970, Edwards was chairman of the Republican Party for the First Congressional District of South Carolina. In that capacity, as a supporter of Republican U.S. Representative Albert Watson for governor, Edwards claimed that Watson's Democratic opponent, John C. West,, had worked covertly in 1969 against the nomination of South Carolina's Clement Haynsworth to the United States Supreme Court. The Nixon nominee failed in the U.S. Senate, 55 to 45, on grounds of alleged bias against organized labor. Edwards predicted that West as governor would install "an ultra-liberal, minority-dominated state government," citing West's political ties to Hubert H. Humphrey and Roy Wilkins, longtime executive director of the NAACP.

Edwards first appeared as a candidate himself in 1971, when he entered a special election to fill the vacancy in the Charleston-centered First Congressional District caused by the death of longtime incumbent L. Mendel Rivers. Edwards narrowly lost to one of Rivers' staffers, Mendel Jackson Davis, in what was the first truly competitive race in the district in memory.

However, Edwards gained enough name recognition from his strong showing in the special election that he was elected to the South Carolina Senate as a Republican from Charleston County. Two years later, he entered the governor's race as a long-shot candidate. However, Edwards upset General William Westmoreland in the Republican primary, and then defeated Democratic Congressman William Jennings Bryan Dorn in the general election, thus becoming the first Republican governor of the state since Daniel Henry Chamberlain in 1876. Edwards was one of the few bright spots in what was otherwise a very bad year for Republicans due to Watergate (and revulsion against the Vietnam War, a factor that may well have contributed to the defeat of Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces during the late 1960s).

Later career

At that time South Carolina Governors were not allowed to serve two terms in succession, so Edwards was unable to seek re-election in 1978. After his term expired, President Ronald Reagan appointed Governor Edwards to be the Secretary of Energy in 1981. He resigned a year later to serve as the President of the Medical University of South Carolina, a post he held for seventeen years. In 1997, Edwards was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame for his contributions as governor. Recently, Governor Edwards endorsed Governor Mitt Romney (R-Massachusetts) for president.

As governor and thereafter, Edwards developed a close friendship with his Democratic predecessor, John West, whom he had earlier accused of undermining the Haynsworth nomination.

In 2010, the new MUSC dental building and the dental school was re-named in his honor as the "James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine".

External links

• SCIway Biography of James Burrows Edwards
• NGA Biography of James Burrows Edwards
• SC Hall of Fame

Political offices
Preceded by John C. West	Governor of South Carolina 1975–1979	Succeeded by Richard Riley
Preceded by Charles Duncan, Jr.	United States Secretary of Energy Served under: Ronald Reagan 1981–1982	Succeeded by Donald P. Hodel