Dennis Hastert, the former Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has died at the age of 84, according to the Kendall County coroner. He died of natural causes at his home in Illinois over the weekend.
From small-town teacher to Speaker
Born in Aurora, Illinois, on January 2, 1942, Hastert graduated from Wheaton College in 1964 and Northern Illinois University in 1967 before working as a high school teacher and wrestling coach. He entered politics and served two decades in Congress, rising to become the 59th Speaker of the House in 1999 following the resignation of Newt Gingrich.
Hastert remains the longest-serving Republican Speaker in US history, holding the gavel for eight years before retiring from Congress in January 2007. He had never served in a top leadership post before his surprise elevation to the position.
A downfall that followed
Hastert’s post-congressional life was overshadowed by scandal. In April 2016, he was sentenced to prison after a bank fraud conviction connected to his efforts to buy the silence of a former student, amid allegations that he had sexually abused teenage boys more than 30 years earlier, during his days as a high school wrestling coach.
He served 13 months of a 15-month federal sentence, a dramatic fall for a man who had once been second in line to the presidency.
Legacy
Hastert’s tenure as Speaker spanned a turbulent era of American politics, from the end of the Clinton administration through much of George W. Bush’s presidency. His death closes the chapter on one of the most consequential — and ultimately controversial — speakerships in modern congressional history.
Source: USA Today