Mark Odom Hatfield is an American politician. He was born on July 12, 1922, in Dallas, Oregon. He is the son of Dovie Odom Hatfield, a school teacher, and Charles Hatfield, a railroad blacksmith. He and his wife Antoinette were married in 1958. They have four children and six grandchildren. Senator Hatfield graduated from Salem High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Willamette University in 1943.
After graduation, he joined the U.S. Navy, taking part in the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After his discharge, he obtained a master's degree in political science from Stanford University in 1948.
In 1950, while teaching political science and serving as dean of students at his undergraduate alma mater, Senator Hatfield began his political career in the Oregon Legislature. After two terms in the Oregon House of Representatives and two years in the Oregon Senate, he became the youngest secretary of state in Oregon history in 1956 at age 34. Two years later he was elected governor of Oregon, and became the state's first two-term governor in the 20th century when he was re-elected in 1962.
In 1966 he won a seat in the U.S. Senate, a position he retained for five terms.
Senator Hatfield retired in 1996, having never lost an election.
Senator Hatfield has written four books:
- Not Quite So Simple (1967)
- Conflict and Conscience (1971), ISBN 0876808119
- Between a Rock and a Hard Place (1976), ISBN 087680427X
- Against the Grain: Reflections of a Rebel Republican (2000), ISBN 1883991366
- Amnesty: The Unsettled Question of Vietnam (1976)
- The Causes of World Hunger (1982)
- (with Edward Kennedy) Freeze! How You Can Help Prevent Nuclear War (1982), ISBN 0553140779
- What About the Russians: A Christian Approach to Us-Soviet Conflict (1984), ISBN 0871787512
- Lessons and Legacies: Farewell Addresses from the Senate (1996)
- (editor) Vice Presidents of the United States: 1789-1993 (1997), ISBN 9997320751
- Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor (2003), ISBN 0804747083
