Overview
- Packwood died Saturday at age 93, his family said in an obituary, and multiple news outlets reported he died in a hospice in California with no cause disclosed.
- After 27 years in the Senate, Packwood resigned in September 1995 after a Senate Ethics Committee unanimously recommended expulsion following a multi-year probe.
- The committee found at least 18 separate unwanted sexual advances between 1969 and 1990 and concluded Packwood had withheld and altered evidence, including editing his diaries to hinder investigators.
- Before the scandal, Packwood was a high-profile moderate Republican who led on abortion rights and played a key role in the 1986 tax reform; he later ran a lucrative lobbying firm, Sunrise Research Corp.
- Reactions to his death reflect a divided legacy, with some noting his legislative skill and others insisting the documented abuse and obstruction must be central to how history remembers him.