PAUL SARBANES
(Maryland & Balliol 1954) (3 February 1933 - 6 December 2020)
Paul Sarbanes (Maryland & Balliol 1954) was a graduate of Princeton University and attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1954. He graduated with a First Class degree in 1957 and then returned to the United States to attend Harvard Law School.
After graduating in 1960, he clerked for Federal Judge Morris A. Soper before entering private practice. He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1966 and went on to serve two terms in the Maryland House from 1967 to 1971. In 1970, he won a seat in the United States House of Representatives, representing Maryland's 4th and later Maryland's 3rd congressional district from 1971 to 1977.
In 1976, Sarbanes ran for the United States Senate and was re-elected four times, each time receiving no less than 59% of the vote. Sarbanes co-wrote the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which reshaped corporate oversight after accounting scandals.
Many Rhodes Scholars will especially remember how Sarbanes and Senator Richard Lugar (Indiana & Pembroke 1954), from opposing parties, jointly made them so warmly welcome in Washington, DC.