Gerry Brewster, the son of war hero and United States Senator Daniel B. Brewster, is currently on a book tour for the new biography, Self-Destruction: The rise, fall, and redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster by John W. Frece.
After graduating from Gilman and Princeton, Gerry earned his law degree at the University of Baltimore, clerked for the Baltimore County Circuit Court, and served as an assistant State’s Attorney. Gerry also served on the staff of United States Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. and subsequently was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
In 1994, Gerry won the Democratic nomination for Maryland’s 2nd Congressional district but lost the general election, then becoming a Baltimore County public school teacher, where he taught Olympian Michael Phelps ninth grade government and traveled to the Olympics and the World Championships with the Phelps family.
As the tallest licensed jockey in America, Gerry rode four times in the world’s oldest and toughest timber race, the Maryland Hunt Cup, winning the race as an owner in 2017.
Gerry was a member of the Maryland Aviation Commission under Governors O’Malley and Hogan, the Baltimore County Tourism Commission, and was on the Board of Directors of Franklin Square Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation, the Maryland Center for History and Culture, the Gilman School (where he was president of the Alumni Association), and, for the past 38 years, the Maryland State Fair and Agricultural Society, serving as Chairman for the past 6 years until his retirement at the end of 2023.
Left: Danny Brewster, commissioned as a Marine Corps Lieutenant at age 19, was reportedly the youngest Marine Corps combat officer in World War II
Right: Danny jumps Clifton’s Dan in 1950 while training for the Maryland Hunt Cup. Photo by A. Aubrey Bodine – Courtesy of Jennifer B. Bodine
Brewster joins President Kennedy behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office in 1962.
In a 1964 Oval Office meeting, President Johnson thanks Brewster for standing in for him in the bitter Maryland presidential primary contest with Wallace.
Interview Questions:
- Gerry, a new book has recently come out, a biography of your father, who was a war hero and United States Senator. Tell us about the origins of the book, Self-Destruction: The rise, fall, and redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster by author John W. Frece.
- Your father was a direct descendent of Benjamin Franklin and had a family that fought in wars, held elective office, and were leaders of industry. It sounded like your father had every opportunity in life, but things got off to a rocky start. How so?
- Your father was reportedly the youngest combat marine officer in World War II and was wounded seven times in the Battle for Okinawa – the deadliest battle in the Pacific due partly to Japan’s use of kamikaze attacks. Tell us about his wartime experiences.
- Your father retuned from the war with a passion to make a difference and chose to run for office at a young age. What was that passion?
- After his service in the Maryland House of Delegates in Annapolis and in the United States House of Representatives, he was elected to the United States Senate in his thirties. Tell us more about his service in Washington.
- Your father stood in for President Lyndon Johnson in the critical 1964 Maryland presidential primary – where he defeated the segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace – a victory that directly contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Tell us about the significance of that primary and its effects – nationally and on your father’s personal condition and political future.
- Your father lost reelection to the United States Senate in 1968, defeated by his good friend Charles “Mac” Mathias, then a four-term member of the House of Representatives. Explain the unusual circumstances of their relationship – the role of the Vietnam war and your father’s addiction to alcohol. Did their relationship endure after that election?
- Upon leaving office, your father was indicted on federal corruption charges in a case that went before the United States Supreme Court twice and was tried for weeks in a Washington D.C. federal courtroom. I covered that case for the Baltimore Sun, and it is where we first met. Please explain the Brewster case – how it came about, the political atmosphere at the time, the series of appeals to clear his name, and its impact of him.
- Your father suffered from alcoholism, which was the undoing of his career, his reputation, and more. Tell us about the impact that alcoholism had on your father’s life and how he was finally able to overcome it.
- After self-destructing, your father had a third act, a remarkable story of recovery and redemption that has inspired many others who have also found themselves at rock bottom but fought to come back and to live a life of meaning and purpose. Tell us about that encouraging stage of your father’s life.
Frederic B. Hill was a reporter, correspondent and editorial writer for The Baltimore Sun, including tours as Bureau Chief in London and Paris, covering Europe, southern Africa and parts of the Middle East. His award-winning articles on corruption in Baltimore county and the state of Maryland led to major reforms and convictions of high-level government officials. He was Foreign Affairs Director for Sen. Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R., MD) in 1985 and 1986, and assisted and advised the senator on a number of path-breaking legislative achievements, including the U.S. sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid regime and several arms control measures.
He then established the State Department’s first Office of Special Programs. The office conducted policy planning exercises (wargames) and senior-level conferences and discussions on security, political, economic and global issues for the Department of State and key national security agencies from 1986 to 2006.
A native of Maine and graduate of Bowdoin College, he is the author of “Ships, Swindlers and Scalded Hogs, the Rise and Fall of the Crooker Shipyard in Bath, Maine” (Down East Books, 2016) and co-editor of “The Life of Kings; The Baltimore Sun and the Golden Age of the American Newspaper “(Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Mr. Hill wrote the preface of the collection and his chapter detailed his investigative articles which led, indirectly, to the resignation of Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew.
He has written four other books, in addition to Mathias of Maryland (McFarland, 2024). They include A Flick of Sunshine; The Remarkable Shipwrecked, Marooned, Maritime Adventures and Tragic Fate of an American Original, written with my son Alexander Jackson Hill, (Lyons Press, 2022); Dereliction of Duty; The Failed Presidency of Donald John Trump (Amazon, 2020); and Beyond the Tides; Classic Tales of Richard Matthews Hallet (Down East Books, 2022).
He is a member and former president of Maine’s First Ship, an organization building a reconstruction of the first vessel built by English settlers in North America, at Popham Beach, Maine, in 1607-08, and co-director of a leading doubles squash tournament, the Maine/Maryland at Meadow Mill (M4) Doubles Championships. He also served on the board of directors of the Camden Conference, Maine’s leading forum on foreign affairs.
He lives in Maine and Baltimore.
Tel: 410-456-9281
Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybiz.co, conducts CEO Interviews.
If you’re interested in a citybiz CEO Interview, please contact
Edwin Warfield – edwin.warfield@citybizlist.com
