NEWT GINGRICH (1943-)

FORMER SPEAKER OF THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Newton Leroy Gingrich is an American politician, author, and historian who served as the 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the S. Representative for Georgia’s 6th congressional district from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, Gingrich was a candidate for the presidential nomination of his party.

Gingrich was born as Newton Leroy McPherson at the Harrisburg Hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 1943. His mother, Kathleen “Kit” (née Daugherty; 1925–2003), and father, Newton Searles McPherson (1923–1970), married in September 1942, when she was 16 and McPherson was 19. The marriage fell apart within days.

In 1946, his mother married Robert Gingrich (1925–1996), who adopted Newt. Robert Gingrich was a career Army officer who served tours in Korea and Vietnam. In 1956, the family moved to Europe living for a period in Orléans, France and Stuttgart, Germany.

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