How did Ken Starr die?
Ken Starr, the prosecutor who oversaw the difficult Whitewater investigation into the administration of then-President Bill Clinton and whose report on the case revealed Clinton’s extramarital affairs, died on Tuesday in Houston due to complications from surgery.
In a statement, his family said that he had died
Starr is survived by his wife of 52 years, Alice Mendell Starr, his children Randall P. Starr, Carolyn S. Doolittle, and Cynthia S. Roemer, as well as their spouses and nine grandchildren.
What killed Ken Starr?
His wife, Alice Starr, said that he had been in Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center for 17 weeks fighting an unknown illness. She said that he died because of complications from surgery, but she didn’t say anything else.
Randall Starr, the son, spoke for the family when he said, “We are very saddened by the death of our dear and loving father and grandfather. We admired him for his hard work, but he always put his family first.”
We’ll always remember the great times we had with Dad because of how much he loved us, how enthusiastic he was, how funny he was, and how interested he was in having fun with each of us. He is with his Lord and Savior right now. Starr will be buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. So, complications after surgery were found to be the reason Ken Starr died.
History of the life of Kenneth Winston Starr
Kenneth Winston Starr was an American lawyer who was born on July 21, 1946, and died on September 13, 2022. He is best known for leading the investigation of Clinton administration officials in the Whitewater case from 1994 to 1998.
Starr was a federal appeals court judge before he became a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the U.S. solicitor general from 1989 to 1993 and a judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1989 while George H. W. Bush was president.
Starr got the most attention when Bill Clinton was president of the United States and he was the independent counsel. Starr was first asked to look into Clinton’s real estate investments in Whitewater and the death of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster.
Later, the three-judge panel that was in charge of enforcing the Ethics in Government Act expanded the investigation to look into whether Clinton had lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Starr’s report, which came out after more than four years of investigation, said that Clinton had lied under oath about what the relationship was. Because of the accusation, Clinton was removed from office and his law license was taken away for five years.
Pepperdine University’s law school was in charge of Dean Starr. He was the president and chancellor of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, from June 2010 to May and June 2016. He was also the person in charge of constitutional law at Baylor Law School’s Louise L. Morrison chair.
The Baylor University Board of Regents said on May 26, 2016, that Starr’s term as university president would end on May 31, 2016, after an investigation into how Starr handled several sexual assaults at the school. The board said he would stay on as chancellor, but on June 1, Starr told ESPN that he was quitting his job right away.
NPR said that Starr was accused of “ignoring sexual assault issues on campus.” On August 19, 2016, Starr announced that he would quit his job as a tenured professor at Baylor Law School and end all ties with the school in a “mutually agreed separation.”
On January 17, 2020, Starr joined President Trump’s legal team for the first trial over his impeachment.
Ken’s childhood
Starr was born and raised near Vernon, Texas. His parents were Vannie Maude (Trimble) and Willie D. Starr. His father was a minister for the Church of Christ and also owned a barbershop.
Starr went to Sam Houston High School in San Antonio, where she got straight A’s. Starr’s classmates thought he was the most likely to do well. In 1970, he married a Jewish woman who had become a Christian. Her name was Alice Mendell. There were three kids in the family.
Education
Starr went to Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, which was connected to the Churches of Christ. There, he was a strong supporter of the Vietnam protesters and a member of the Young Democrats. Later, he switched schools and went to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he got a Bachelor of Arts in history and graduated in 1968. When he was there, he joined Delta Phi Epsilon.
Starr was given the military classification of 4F because he had psoriasis. This meant that he could not be recruited during the Vietnam War. Before going to Brown University to get his Master of Arts in 1969, he took part in the Southwestern Advantage program for entrepreneurs. After that, Starr went to law school at Duke University. He was the editor of the Duke Law Journal and got his Juris Doctor in 1973.
Ronald Reagan suggested him to replace George MacKinnon on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on September 13, 1983. The United States Senate approved him on September 20, 1983, and he got his commission the same day. On May 26, 1989, he no longer had a job because he had quit. Starr was the United States’ solicitor general from 1989 to 1993, when George H. W. Bush was president.
Argued cases
Starr argued 36 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including 25 while he was U.S. Solicitor General from 1989 to 1993. He was a United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1989. From 1981 to 1983, he was Counselor and Chief of Staff to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith. From 1975 to 1977, he was a law clerk for both Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Fifth Circuit Judge David W. Dyer (1973-1974). From 1994 to 1999, he was the Independent Counsel for five investigations, including the Whitewater case, which were all given to him by a panel of three judges.
Starr taught constitutional law for 25 years as an adjunct or visiting professor at New York University, George Mason School of Law, Pepperdine School of Law, Chapman Law School, and as the Louise L. Morrison Professor at The Baylor Law School.
Starr was a teacher at Hillsdale College and Regent Law School most recently. Starr was a partner at two big national law firms, Kirkland & Ellis and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He was an expert in appellate law. In 2017, he was named Of Counsel at The Lanier Law Firm.
He is the head of Baylor University and its chancellor
He was the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean at the Pepperdine School of Law from 2004 to 2010. He was President and Chancellor of Baylor University from 2010 to 2016. Starr was in charge of many non-profit boards, such as Advocates International, Christian Legal Society, and the Alliance Defending Freedom Advisory Board. “Starr’s vision for Pepperdine was global,” says Jim Gash, who is the current president of the school. I am very thankful for Ken’s friendship, mentoring, advice, direction, and support.” He spent his whole professional life fighting for everyone’s right to follow their own conscience and religion.
Ken worked on a number of boards
He also served on many other boards, such as the American Judicature Society, the American Law Institute, the American Association of Law Schools, the American Bar Association Journal of Editors, the American Inns of Court, the Institute for United States Studies, and the Supreme Court Historical Society. He was the former president of the Council for Court Excellence, the Institute of Judicial Administration, the Southern Presidents Conference, the Philosophical Society of Texas, the Institute of Judicial Administration, and the Council for Judicial Excellence.
Author of books that sell well
The best-selling author Os Guinness called Starr’s book Religious Liberty in Crisis: Exercising Your Faith in an Age of Uncertainty “seasoned, wise, magisterial, and gracefully written — a comprehensive judge’s tour of the religious freedom horizon;” First Among Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life was praised by the U.S. Judge David B. Sentelle says in his books Bear Country: The Baylor Story and Contempt: “A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation” is very easy to read and full of useful information. Not only is it the best treatment of the Court to date, but it is also likely to hold that title for a very long time. (In 2018, it was a New York Times best seller).
Prizes and awards
He got a lot of honors and awards, like the Edmund Randolph Award for Outstanding Service in the Department of Justice, the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, the J. Reuben Clark Law Society 2005 Distinguished Service Award, the 2004 Capital Book Award, and the Jefferson Cup award from the FBI. He got honorary doctorates from American University, Shenandoah University, Pepperdine University, and Hampton Sydney College.
Obituary
Starr will be laid to rest in Austin at the Texas State Cemetery. On Friday, September 23, from 4 to 7 p.m., people can go to Wilkirson Hatch Bailey in Waco to see the body of a person who died. On Saturday, September 24, at 3:00 p.m., only family members will be allowed to attend a memorial service at Waco’s Antioch Community Church.
People who liked and cared about him sent their condolences:
Jimmy Seibert, the senior pastor of Antioch, said this about Ken’s life: “The world will remember Ken Starr as a brilliant thinker, leader, and defender of truth and justice. Ken Starr will always be remembered as a loyal friend and a man with a strong faith. Thank you, Ken, for how much you love God, your family, and all of us. You will always be remembered in the history of the United States, but we will remember you especially in our hearts.”
Chaom wrote on Twitter
Ken Starr is dead. I’ll never forget how he had a woman wear a wire so he could humiliate her friend on national TV for giving a blowjob. He then lost his job as university president when it turned out he had covered up the football team’s years-long rape spree.