Parris Glendening Biography Quotes 2 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Parris Nelson Glendening was born on June 11, 1942, in New York City and grew up in a working-class family that later moved to Florida. He gravitated early toward public affairs and political science, interests that took him to Florida State University, where he completed undergraduate and graduate study and earned a doctorate in government and public administration. In the late 1960s he joined the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park, as a professor of government and politics. Teaching and research gave him a grounding in urban affairs, public budgeting, and local governance that would shape his approach to elected office.

Academic Career and Entry into Local Government
At the University of Maryland, Glendening built a reputation as a clear-eyed analyst of growth, land use, and the practical tools available to state and local officials. The classroom and campus committees became springboards to community engagement in Prince George's County, a fast-growing Washington, D.C., suburb. In 1974 he won a seat on the Prince George's County Council, where he served for eight years, including time as council chair. Those years forged relationships with local civic leaders and business groups and introduced him to the day-to-day complexities of zoning, transportation, and public safety in a county undergoing rapid change.

Prince George's County Executive
Elected County Executive in 1982, Glendening served three terms, overseeing the county until 1994. He focused on managing growth, expanding public services, and modernizing the county's administration, while negotiating with developers and community associations over the scale and shape of new projects. His tenure coincided with major regional infrastructure decisions and set the stage for the return of professional football to the county later in the decade. He worked closely with county council members and regional partners, and he was succeeded by Wayne K. Curry, who inherited a jurisdiction with expanding transit links and continuing development pressures.

Governor of Maryland
Glendening was elected the 59th Governor of Maryland in 1994 and won reelection in 1998. His lieutenant governor for both terms was Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a partner in policy development and outreach. He succeeded William Donald Schaefer and served through January 2003, when Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. took office. Early in his first term, Glendening became nationally associated with Smart Growth, a framework to curb sprawl by directing state investments into existing communities. Key elements included designating Priority Funding Areas to focus infrastructure spending, launching the Rural Legacy Program to preserve farmland and open space, supporting brownfields redevelopment incentives, and later adding land conservation efforts under GreenPrint. These initiatives linked environmental stewardship with fiscal prudence, aiming to revitalize cities and towns while protecting the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Education, Public Safety, and Economic Policy
Education finance was a central priority. Glendening backed the recommendations of the Commission on Education Finance, Equity, and Adequacy chaired by Alvin Thornton, culminating in major legislation in 2002 that substantially increased and rebalanced K-12 funding. He worked with legislative leaders, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., to assemble bipartisan coalitions around school investment and targeted economic incentives. In 2000 he signed a significant gun safety law, part of a broader approach that paired public safety initiatives with community-based prevention. On economic development, his administration supported neighborhood revitalization, transit planning, and targeted tax credits to spur job creation in areas with existing infrastructure.

Infrastructure, the Bay, and Regional Issues
As governor, Glendening emphasized transit and sustainable transportation planning, and he withheld support for highway expansions he believed would accelerate sprawl, most notably pausing the long-debated Intercounty Connector. He worked to advance studies for new transit lines while improving commuter rail and bus service. His Chesapeake Bay agenda linked land use, stormwater management, and habitat protection with state-local partnerships. During stadium negotiations that brought the Washington NFL team to Landover in 1997, he coordinated with team owner Jack Kent Cooke and, later, Daniel Snyder on infrastructure commitments and public impacts, balancing regional economic aspirations with neighborhood concerns.

Leadership Style and the Board of Public Works
Maryland's Board of Public Works, comprising the governor, the comptroller, and the state treasurer, required steady collaboration. Glendening served alongside long-tenured Comptroller Louis Goldstein until Goldstein's death in 1998, and later with William Donald Schaefer, his gubernatorial predecessor. The board's weekly agenda made project oversight highly visible; debates over procurement, capital spending, and environmental safeguards often reflected larger policy disagreements, but also produced compromises that shaped schools, roads, and conservation projects statewide.

Crisis Management and Public Security
Glendening's second term was marked by high-profile crises that demanded coordination across jurisdictions. During the 2002 Washington-area sniper attacks, he worked with law enforcement leaders, notably Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, and with neighboring Virginia officials, including Governor Mark Warner, to support a multi-agency response. The eventual arrests brought relief to anxious communities in Maryland and the region. Earlier weather emergencies, such as Hurricane Floyd in 1999, tested emergency management systems that his administration sought to strengthen.

Later Career and Ongoing Advocacy
After leaving office in 2003, Glendening returned to public policy work connected to the University of Maryland and national organizations focused on land use and community design. He helped lead smart growth initiatives affiliated with Smart Growth America and worked with the Governors' Institute on Community Design, advising elected officials and planners on practical strategies for revitalization, transportation, and environmental protection. He continued to speak and write on the links among housing, climate, and economic competitiveness, urging states to align infrastructure spending with long-term sustainability.

Personal Life
Glendening made his home in Prince George's County during his academic and political career. His family life, usually kept private, drew unusual attention during his second term when he divorced Lynne V. Glendening, who had served as Maryland's First Lady, and later married Jennifer Crawford, his deputy chief of staff. The episode prompted discussion about personal and professional boundaries in public service. He is a father and has remained closely connected to Maryland's civic and academic communities.

Legacy
Parris Glendening's legacy rests on the proposition that growth policy is fiscal policy and environmental policy at once. His Smart Growth agenda influenced planning debates well beyond Maryland and introduced practical tools, such as Priority Funding Areas and targeted preservation programs, that other states adapted. His support for education finance reform reshaped funding for local schools, even as ensuing administrations refined implementation. Not every initiative avoided controversy, and budget pressures at the end of his tenure tested his priorities, but the through-line of his career remained consistent: aligning government investment with community revitalization, environmental stewardship, and long-term competitiveness for a state anchored by the Chesapeake Bay and a dynamic metropolitan region.

Our collection contains 2 quotes who is written by Parris, under the main topics: Nature - Health.