Hale Champion

In 1958, Champion was appointed press secretary to California governor-elect Pat Brown.^[1] In 1961 he was appointed state finance director.^[3] He played a major role in shaping policy, including the California Master Plan for Higher Education and improvement of the state's infrastructure.^[1]

After Brown left office, Champion became a Kennedy Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.^[1] In 1967 he was named director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority by mayor-elect Kevin White.^[4] During his tenure as head of the BRA, Champion oversaw the redevelopment of Quincy Market and $1 billion in commitments to commercial development.^[2] He resigned in 1969 to become the vice president of planning and operations for the University of Minnesota system.^[5] He returned to Massachusetts two years later when he was named Harvard's vice president of finance.^[6]

In 1977, Champion was appointed United States Under Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.^[7] In 1978, HEW secretary Joseph A. Califano Jr. pushed for Champion to become commissioner of the Social Security Administration, however President Jimmy Carter preferred to keep Champion in the higher-ranking role of undersecretary.^[8] Champion resigned in 1979, citing his position's low pay and his desire to leave before a law that restricted the ability of former federal officials to deal with the government went into effect.^[9]

Champion returned to Harvard as an assistant to president Derek Bok. In 1980 he was appointed executive dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government.^[10] He took a leave of absence from the school in 1987 to serve as chief of staff to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.^[11] He returned to Harvard in the spring of 1989 and taught there until his retirement in 1995.^[12][1] From 1990 to 1992, Champion was chairman of the Kaiser Family Foundation.^[2]

Champion met his wife Marie Ozine Tifft while he was attending Stanford. They had one son and one daughter.^[1] Marie Champion served on the Sacramento, California school committee while the family resided there.^[4] On July 7, 1965, Champion, his wife, and their infant daughter were kidnapped by two ex-convicts. who were unaware of Champion's government position. They were released two days later after Champion was wounded in an exchange of gunfire in Tonopah, Nevada.^[1]

Champion spent his final years caring for his wife, who had Alzheimer's disease. Champion died on April 23, 2008, at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts from prostate cancer.^[1][2]