Richard Lewis Thornburgh served as U.S. attorney general from 1988 to 1991 under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. A former federal prosecutor and governor of Pennsylvania, Thornburgh proved to be a more moderate and less politically controversial attorney general than his predecessor, Edwin Meese. Nevertheless, Thornburgh remained committed to the national war on drugs and tougher criminal penalties.

Thornburgh was born on July 16, 1932 in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. After graduating Yale University in 1954 he earned a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1957. After graduation he joined a prominent Pittsburgh law firm and over the next decade became a successful litigator. However, through his activities in the Republican Party he expressed an interest in government service. In 1969 President Richard M. Nixon appointed him the U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania, a position that called on Thornburgh to shift his legal emphasis to the criminal law. Thornburgh enjoyed supervising the...