Posted by Terry Powers on December 20, 2022:

US Congressman, Businessman. "Bo" Callaway was a Republican congressman serving Georgia's 3rd district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1967, the 11th Secretary of the Army from 1973 to 1975, manager of Gerald Ford's 1976 presidential campaign, and owner of the Crested Butte Mountain Resort for more than three decades. He was a 1949 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and veteran of the Korean War. During the 1950s, he aided his father in the development and operation of the family's 13,000-acre Pine Mountain resort 'Callaway Gardens'. He ran for Georgia's 3rd congressional seat in 1964 as a Goldwater Republican, defeating former Democratic lieutenant governor Garland Byrd, thus becoming the first Republican congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction. He sought the governorship of Georgia in 1966, likewise becoming the state's first Republican gubernatorial candidate in 90 years. Despite besting Lester Maddox with a plurality of the vote, he failed to win the majority and so the general assembly, then dominated by the Democratic Party, selected Maddox. A state court determined the legislature acted improperly in electing the candidate with the lesser number of votes, but their decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled on Dec. 12, 1966 that the assembly was constitutionally empowered to break the deadlock. The election exposed a major rift in Georgia's Democratic Party. He served as the coordinator of Richard Nixon's southern campaign in 1968. He was Secretary of the Army from 1973 to 1975, during which time he oversaw the Army's early transition toward post-Vietnam troop levels. He also drew attention to persistent gender and racial inequities in the officer corps. He briefly managed Gerald Ford's presidential campaign until allegations of misconduct, of which he was later cleared, compelled his resignation in 1976. He moved to Colorado that year and went on to serve as the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party from 1981 to 1987. H

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