Paul Spyros Sarbanes

 

Paul S. Sarbanes is a former United States Senator who represented the state of Maryland. Sarbanes, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in Maryland history, having served from 1977 until 2007. His son, John Sarbanes, won the general election for Maryland's 3rd congressional district in 2006, the district that Paul Sarbanes represented prior to his election as senator. During his service in the House, in August 1974, Sarbanes was selected by his colleagues on the House Watergate Committee to introduce the first Article of Impeachment, for obstruction of justice, against President Richard Nixon. He is best known for co-sponsoring the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which set new or enhanced standards for all U.S. public company boards, management and public accounting firms. Sarbanes holds the highest lay office in the Greek Orthodox Church, "Order of St. Andrew, Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate." He was Vice-Chair of the Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission and a member of the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. He has also served as a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Roosevelt Institute, and the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. He has received numerous awards, including the Paul H. Douglas Ethics in Government Award, University of Illinois (2003), the Cox, Richardson, Coleman Award from Harvard Law School (2004), and the Reginald V. Truitt Environmental Award from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (2007).