Like father, like son

Correction appended

With an A.B. from the Wilson School, a law degree from Harvard, a judicial clerkship, work in private practice and time served in Congress, the resume is quite impressive.

Seeing two such resumes is uncanny — especially when the individuals to whom they belong are father and son.

Such is the case for former Sen. Paul Sarbanes '54 (D-Md.) and current Rep. John Sarbanes '84 (D-Md.) The elder politician, who retired last year after three-and-a-half decades on Capitol Hill, is a Washington veteran, while his son is a political newcomer, having won his House seat in the 2006 midterm elections.

For both men, politics is more than just a job.

In recent interviews with The Daily Princetonian, John and Paul described their Princeton years as a formative time, citing their Wilson School educations as one facet in a family tradition of civic engagement.

"My closest friends are my friends from Princeton," said the younger Sarbanes, whose district includes most of Baltimore.

John's father, who served three terms in the House of Representatives in the 1970s before being elected to five terms in the Senate, said he remained devoted to his alma mater throughout his lengthy stint in Washington. "There was a period in the 1980s [when] every time I got a salary check, I turned it over, endorsed it and sent it to Princeton," he said.

The Sarbanes' connection to Old Nassau began when Paul, the child of two Greek immigrants, arrived at Princeton from a small town on the eastern shore of Maryland. The first student from his high school to attend the University, he decided to apply after his principal received a visit from a Princeton admissions officer soliciting promising candidates from a variety of unrepresented schools.

"I went ahead and applied, and Princeton accepted me and gave me scholarship and a loan and a job," Paul said.

During his time at the University, he played on the basketball team — though, as he put it, he "rode the bench" — and participated in student government.

His education at the University "opened up all kinds of intellectual experiences for me," Paul added.

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After decamping to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, earning his J.D. at Harvard, working for a federal judge and spending time in private law practice, he kicked off his political career in the Maryland legislature.

Paul's next four decades of political service would encompass myriad bill sponsorships and committee memberships, including stints on powerful committees such as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"He had a very high degree of knowledge and expertise in U.S. foreign policy," said. Stephen Oxman '67, a University trustee who also worked with the elder Sarbanes in Washington. "I found it very helpful to have a relationship with someone on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who was so knowledgeable."

But Paul may be most famous for the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which beefed up accounting standards in the aftermath of that year's corporate scandals.

Despite the private sector corruption his bill sought to counteract, Paul said he thinks businesses can strive to better the world. "In thinking about public service," he said, "we're often too quick to draw a rigid line between the public and the private sectors and assign service to the public interest exclusively, or nearly exclusively, to the public sector."

Besides his work in Washington, Paul also served on the University's Board of Trustees between 2002 and 2006. During last year's Alumni Weekend, he was presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award, which is given to an alum whose career embodies Princeton's motto, "In the Nation's Service."

John Sarbanes

Of Paul's three children, John is not the only one to follow his father to Princeton. His brother Michael '86, a Wilson School major, and sister Janet '89, a comparative literature major, were also part of the Orange and Black tradition.

And the University wasn't the only Sarbanes family habit. As children of a prominent politician, John and his siblings grew up with the government as a virtual member of the family. John was eight when his father was first elected to the House.

"They've seen it all, and they've lived through it," Paul said, speaking about how his kids were affected by his Capitol Hill career. "Public issues were always a major subject of discussion around the house."

John, who now serves on the House's Education and Labor Committee, said this early immersion in the political world helped shape his choices at Princeton. "The Wilson School gives you a deeper level of involvement with politics," he said. "It reaffirmed the interest I had in public policy."

His senior thesis, "The American Intelligence Community Abroad: Potential for a Breakdown Case Study, Greece, 1967," gave him a foreign policy background that has been useful in Congress, he said.

"I formed some strong opinions on how you should conduct your intelligence activities," he said, citing the situation in Iraq as an example of the risks that arise when such activities are mishandled.

During his years at the University, John participated in the Student Volunteers Council and political groups. He was instrumental in expanding the University's College Democrats chapter, which ballooned from 15 members to 400 during his undergraduate years.

After Princeton, he studied in Greece on a Fulbright Scholarship, then followed in his father's footsteps again by attending Harvard Law School and clerking for a judge before moving on to a private law firm.

Despite the two Sarbanes' lengthy and multifaceted careers, Oxman said he thinks the University remains important to both men. "Princeton has been a huge part of their lives," he said.

Correction

The original article mistakenly stated that John Sarbanes studied at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship after graduating from Princeton. In fact, he studied in Greece on a Fulbright Scholarship. Additionally, the article implied that John Sarbanes serves on two House committees for education and labor, when, in fact, he serves on the House Education and Labor Committee. The Daily Princetonian regrets these errors.