After his return to the U.S., he served in the military as a captain in the United States Marine Corps from 1955 to 1958.
In 1978 Culver was inducted into the Harvard Football Hall of Fame.
Career
Culver became active in politics, working as a legislative assistant for Senator Edward Kennedy in 1962. He began his law practice in Iowa a year later. In 1964, he ran against Republican U.S. Representative James E. Bromwell. With President Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory, many Democrats, including Culver, were carried to victory.[2]
In 1974, Culver ran for the U.S. Senate, narrowly defeating Davis Stanley with 50.02% of the vote for the seat left open by the retirement of Harold E. Hughes. Culver served one term in the Senate, from 1975 until 1981. With Ronald Reagan's national victory as president, Culver was defeated in 1980 by Republican Chuck Grassley, taking 45.5% of the vote to Grassley's 53.5%.[2]
In 2000, Culver co-wrote American Dreamer, the first comprehensive biography of Henry A. Wallace.
Culver was a featured speaker at the August 28, 2009, memorial service for Edward Kennedy, speaking as his Harvard classmate and teammate, Senate colleague, and longtime friend.[3]
John Culver and his wife had five children, including Chet, who served as governor of Iowa from 2007 to 2011.
At the time of his death, Culver was recently retired from the firm of Arent Fox in Washington, D.C., where he had established the government affairs practice.[5] After leaving the Senate, he lived and worked in the capital with his wife, Mary Jane Checchi.
Johnson, Marc C. Tuesday Night Massacre: Four Senate Elections and the Radicalization of the Republican Party (U of Oklahoma Press, 2021) 1980 Senate races saw bitter defeats of Frank Church, Birch Bayh, John Culver, and George McGovern and weakened moderates in GOP.
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