Maurice Hinchey | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York | |
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2013 | |
Constituency | 26th district (1993–2003) 22nd district (2003–2013) |
Preceded by | Matthew F. McHugh |
Succeeded by | Richard L. Hanna |
Member of the New York State Assembly from the 101st district | |
In office January 1, 1975 – December 31, 1992 | |
Preceded by | H. Clark Bell |
Succeeded by | Kevin Cahill |
Personal details | |
Born | Maurice Dunlea Hinchey October 27, 1938 New York City, New York |
Died | November 22, 2017 (aged 79) Saugerties, New York |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Ilene Marder Hinchey |
Children | Michelle Hinchey |
Alma mater | State University of New York at New Paltz |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Navy |
Years of service | 1956–1959 |
Maurice Dunlea Hinchey (October 27, 1938 – November 22, 2017) was an American politician. He was a former U.S. Representative from New York. He was a member of the Democratic Party. He retired at the end of his term in January 2013 after twenty years in Congress.
A New York City native who moved to the Hudson Valley where he attended high school and college, Hinchey had previously represented part of the area in the New York State Assembly since 1974.
As chair of that body's Environmental Conservation Committee, he took the lead in bringing environmental issues to the fore, particularly when he held hearings on the problems created by toxic waste disposal in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls. In his later years in Congress he vehemently opposed hydraulic fracturing to exploit the natural gas resources of the Marcellus Shale.
Throughout his career he was considered a political progressive for his liberal stands on other issues.
On April 22, 2011, Hinchey's office announced that he was being treated for a curable form of colon cancer.[1][2][3] His doctors said that they expect a full recovery.[3][4]
Shortly after being treated for the colon cancer, Hinchey began experiencing symptoms of frontotemporal dementia, a diagnosis that his family did not make public until 2017.[5] He died from the disease on November 22, 2017 at his home in Saugerties, New York at the age of 79.[6]