Complete Story
08/04/2016
Former Ohio congressman Steve LaTourette dies at age 62
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former Congress member Steve LaTourette, known for his moderate brand of Republican politics and his irreverent brand of humor, died Wednesday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 62.
LaTourette grew up in Cleveland Heights. His father, Eugene, was an accountant, and his mother, Patricia, worked for a life insurance company. At Cleveland Heights High School, LaTourette led petition drives to permit students to wear jeans and grow facial hair. Although he regularly spent campaign money on season tickets to Ohio State University football games during his years in Congress, LaTourette graduated from the University of Michigan before obtaining a law degree from Cleveland State University.
After law school, LaTourette worked as a public defender, a job he said taught him what it was like to have "nobody like you." He was elected to serve as Lake County prosecutor in 1988, after losing an initial bid for the job.
His successful prosecution of cult killer Jeffrey Lundgren, who murdered followers who disagreed with his religious teachings, gave LaTourette sufficient name recognition to win a House of Representatives seat in the 1994 sweep that put Republicans in charge of Congress for the first time in 40 years.
