George Deukmejian
George Deukmejian (born July 6, 1928) is a Republican California politician from the city of Long Beach. He was the 35th Governor of California.
Born in Menands, New York, Deukmejian (pronounced duke-MAY-jee-unn) grew up in Menands, New York. He was the son of Armenian immigrants. He graduated from Siena College in 1949 with a degree in Sociology. He then earned a law degree from Saint John's University, in 1952. From 1953 to 1955, he served as a lawyer in the US Army's Judge Advocate Corps.
He moved to California in 1955, where his sister Mrs. Anna Ashjian already lived. His sister introduced him to Gloria Saatjian, whose parents were also Armenian immigrants. They married in 1958 and had three children. Two daughters, born in 1965 and 1970; and one son, born in 1967.
In California, he first entered private practice, but soon entered politics. He was elected to the California Assembly in 1962, representating Long Beach. In 1966, he moved to the State Senate. By 1969, he was the majority leader in the State Senate. He first ran for Attorney General of California in 1970, finishing fourth in the Republican primary. He won the election for Attorney General in 1978 and served from 1979 to 1983.
In 1982, he was elected to his first term as Governor of California, defeating Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in the general election. He defeated Bradley again in a 1986 rematch. Deukmejian served as governor from 1983 to 1991.
Deukmejian was considered a hard-liner on law and order issues, and made his career by being tough on crime. When he was in the legislature, he wrote California's capital punishment law.
From 1991 to 2000, he was a partner in a Los Angeles law firm. He retired in 2000, but reentered public life by serving on special commissions. He heads a commission to reform the California penal system, serves on a charter-reform commission in his hometown of Long Beach, and is overseeing a revamping of the UCLA Willed Body Program, after a scandal involving the sale of human body parts donated for science.
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| Preceded by: Jerry Brown |
Governors of California | Succeeded by: Pete Wilson |