"New York Congressman" Otis Pike Signed Congressional Envelope Todd Mueller COA

Description

Up for auction
"New York Congressman" Otis Pike Signed Congressional Envelope Dated 1961.
This item is certified authentic by
Todd Mueller Autographs
and comes with their Letter of Authenticity.
ES-3085
Otis Grey Pike
(August 31, 1921 – January 20, 2014) was a
Democratic
member of the
United States House of Representatives
from
New York
.
Pike was born in
Riverhead, New York
. He served in the
United States Marine Corps
in the Pacific as a Dive Bomber and Night Fighter pilot from 1942 until 1946. He graduated with an A.B. from the School of Public and International Affairs (now the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
) from
Princeton University
in 1943 after completing a senior thesis titled "American-Chinese Relations: Emphasizing the Years 1931-1941." He then received a J.D. from
Columbia Law School
in 1948. Pike was first elected to public office in the Town of Riverhead as a Justice of the Peace, then ran for Congress from the 1st Congressional District of New York in 1958, an election which he lost to incumbent
Stuyvesant Wainwright
. Two years later, in 1960, he ran again and this time narrowly defeated Wainwright. Pike represented
New York's 1st congressional district
from January 3, 1961 until January 3, 1979. Pike was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and in the mid-1970s headed the Congressional
Special Select Committee on Intelligence
, the House version of the Senate Committee on Intelligence headed by Senator Frank Church. The House of Representatives voted 246-124 to direct that the Pike report not be released if not certified by the President not to contain classified information. However, the report was published by
The Village Voice
. In his final years in Congress, Pike served on the Ways and Means Committee. During his nine terms in Congress, he was a proponent of pro-environmental legislation including the creation of the
Fire Island National Seashore
on Long Island, which now includes the
Otis G. Pike Wilderness Area
. In early 1965, at a student meeting at Suffolk County Community College, he said that only revolution would result in a change of government in South Africa. At the same meeting, he also stated that "politicians keep their ear so close to the ground that an ant can jump in" referring to their ability to know what their constituents are thinking. He decided not to seek a 10th term in 1978 and retired from Congress in January 1979. In September 1971 Pike put forward a bill that would have turned historic
Gardiners Island
,
Cartwright Island
,
Gardiners Point Island
,
Hicks Island
, and 1000 acres of the nearby shore of
Long Island
into a national monument.
As a member of congress Pike was generally in favor of military funding. He voted to end the
Philadelphia Plan
which provided for affirmative action in hiring practices of construction firms on government projects.