William E. Brock, former US representative, US senator, secretary of labor, trade representative, and chairman of the Republican National Party donated his public papers to UT in November 1997. Brock, from Chattanooga, earned the bachelor’s degree in commerce from Washington and Lee University in 1953. He served as a Lieutenant (JG) in the US Navy from 1953 to 1956 and then joined the family candy business in Chattanooga, becoming vice president for Marketing.
In 1963 Brock was elected to the Third Congressional District Seat as a Republican, the first Republican to hold the seat in 43 years. He served four terms in the House of Representatives and then defeated Albert Gore Sr. for a Tennessee senatorial seat in 1970. He was defeated in his 1976 Senate run by James Sasser, who campaigned effectively on Brock’s use of tax strategies, which resulted in his having to pay only $2,000 in income tax the preceding year.
After leaving the Senate, Brock became chairman of the Republican National Party (1977–1981) until being appointed the eighth United States Trade Representative in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan—a post he held until 1985, when the president appointed him secretary of labor (1985–87). He resigned the cabinet post to become campaign manager for Senator Robert Dole’s presidential campaign.
After Dole dropped out of the race, Brock became a consultant in Washington and established his residence in Maryland. In 1994 he ran for the US Senate to represent Maryland but was defeated. He then devoted his attention to chairing Intellectual Development Systems Inc.—a company he had founded in 1996. He was one of the four founders of the National Endowment for Democracy. He was an initial author of the successful Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations, which resulted in formation of the World Trade Organization.
Brock’s papers are housed in the Modern Political Archives, a subsection of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives.