Whitney North Seymour, Jr.

Whitney North Seymour, Jr. (born July 7, 1923) was a New York State Senator in the 1960s and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1970 to 1973.

He was born on July 7, 1923, the son of Whitney North Seymour (1901–1983). Seymour Jr. served in the United States Military during World War II. He graduated from Princeton University in 1947, and J.D. from Yale Law School in 1950.

Seymour was a member of the New York State Senate from 1966 to 1968, sitting in the 176th and 177th New York State Legislatures. He was the Republican nominee for Congress in the 17th District in November 1968, but was defeated by Democrat Ed Koch.^[1]

He was United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1970 to 1973. During his term he represented the United States Government in seeking to stop The New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers.

Seymour was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator from New York in 1982.^[2]

Seymour was independent counsel or special prosecutor in the case of Michael Deaver, a senior aide to President Ronald Reagan, who was convicted of perjury in 1987.^[3]

In 2008, Seymour, his wife Catryna, and their daughters Tryntje and Gabriel, wrote Stars in the Dark, a play about Hans and Sophie Scholl, and their role in the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany in the 1940s.^[4]

Sources

1. Edward I. Koch, a Mayor as Brash, Shrewd and Colorful as the City He Led, Dies at 88 in the New York Times on February 1, 2013
2. Cuomo chalks up upset over Koch in the Eugene Register–Guard, of Eugene, Oregon, on September 24, 1982
3. Justices to Decide Constitutionality of Special Prosecutor Law in the New York Times on February 23, 1988
4. Former U.S. Attorney Makes His Playwriting Debut in the New York Times on August 19, 2008