Lawrence Joseph Hogan, Sr. papers
Collection
0256-MDHC
Lawrence Joseph Hogan was a former Maryland Congressman for the 5th District (1969-1975) in the House of Representatives and Prince George’s County Executive (1978-1982). Hogan served on the House Judiciary Committee (1971-1974), which investigated the Watergate break-in and led the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon from 1973 to 1974. Subjects covered include the Maryland state legislature, Prince George's County, and his work related to various Congressional committees including the Post Office and Civil Service Committee and the Health, Education, and Welfare Committee.
The collection materials date from 1963 to 2012 and include correspondence, memos, newspaper clippings, legislation, press releases, reports, memorabilia, photographs, phonograph samples, a CD, audio cassette tapes, videocassette tapes, film reels, audio reels, IBM magnetic tape and microfilm reels.
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This collection contains restricted material, please check the series and folder listings for additional information. Materials of a sensitive nature, such as those containing personally identifiable information, are restricted for 75 years from the date of creation or the life of the individual and may be screened and removed by special collections staff. Please speak with a staff member if you believe that materials have been unnecessarily removed.
Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
307.92 Linear Feet (198 record boxes, 8 flat oversize boxes, 9 oversize map folders)
The Lawrence Joseph Hogan, Sr. papers consist of paper records, printed materials, publications, and audiovisual materials from Hogan’s time serving in the House of Representatives as a representative of Maryland’s 5th District and as the Prince George’s County Executive, in addition to records documenting his non-political career.
Subjects covered include the Maryland state legislature and politics; Prince George's County; legislation and bills brought before various House of Representative committees; issues and programs related to the United States federal executive departments, the Executive Office of the President, and independent agencies concerning topics such as abortion, education, school busing, environment, welfare, housing, foreign affairs, elections, energy, crime, taxes, and immigration, among others.
Materials include correspondence, handwritten notes, office memos, schedules, meeting minutes, memorandums, financial records, book drafts, magazine articles, land maps, newspaper clippings, journal publications, government publications and legislation, reports, testimonies, speeches, interviews, press releases, campaign literature, memorabilia, photographs, phonograph samples, a CD, audio cassette tapes, videocassette tapes, film reels, audio reels, IBM magnetic tape and microfilm reels.
Please note that the archival materials in this collection may contain offensive language and explicit imagery. University of Maryland Special Collections and Archives (SCUA) does not endorse this type of content but makes it publicly available for transparency and research. These materials reflect the historical context, beliefs, and issues, that were faced at the time and preserve human experiences and expressions of all kinds.
Lawrence Joseph Hogan (1928-2017) was an American politician who served as a Republican Representative in the United States House of Representatives for Maryland’s 5th Congressional District from 1969 to 1975. He was the only Republican on the House Judiciary Committee to vote yes to all three articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. Hogan also served as the Prince George’s County Executive from 1978 to 1982. His son, Lawrence “Larry” J. Hogan, Jr., was Maryland’s 62nd Governor (2015-2023).
Hogan Senior was born into an Irish-Catholic blue-collar family in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 30, 1928. He was one of four children to Josephine Madeline (née Collins) and Alexander Joseph Hogan. His siblings include Dr. William J. Hogan, Audrey Marie Love, and Mary Madelyn O’Connell. The Hogan children were raised in the Brookland area of Washington, D.C., where Hogan attended Gonzaga High School and graduated in 1946. Hogan married his first wife, Nora Maguire, in 1945, and they had two children together, Mary Theresa “Terry” Lazarus (1948-2016) and Larry Hogan, Jr. (1956-).
Hogan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949 and a Juris Doctor law degree in 1954 from Georgetown University. During his high school and college years, Hogan worked for the Washington-Times Herald newspaper and the Georgetown Athletic Office’s Publicity Department to finance his education. He earned a master’s degree in Public Relations from American University in 1965 and wrote his thesis on “Public Relations Aspects of Public Utility Rate Cases.” He also pursued graduate work at San Francisco State College and the University of Maryland studying public relations, radio and television, and creative writing.
While still in college, Hogan joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1948, working there until 1958. He was assigned to Charlotte, North Carolina; San Francisco; Richmond, California; and the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. Hogan worked for 18 months, between 1958 and 1959, for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States before opening a public relations firm, Larry Hogan and Associates, Inc., in 1959. His firm became a $1 million-a-year business, serving clients including the Washington Association of Plumbing Contractors and Ocean Downs Raceway in Ocean City, among others.
In addition, Hogan became a part-time instructor at the University of Maryland’s School of Journalism (1960-1968). He taught two undergraduate courses, Law of the Press (J-191) and Public Relations (J-161), and was known for his early morning classes and tough grading. He also lectured at the Institutes for Organization Management at Michigan State University and Syracuse University and became a part-time editor for Telephony, the official publication of the Telephone Industry (1961).
Hogan first entered the political arena by volunteering for fellow Massachusetts native John F. Kennedy, the Democratic presidential candidate at the time, before he switched to supporting Richard M. Nixon’s campaign during the 1960 presidential election. Hogan sought his first public office in the 1966 United States elections for the Congressional seat representing Maryland’s 5th District in the House of Representatives. He lost the race to Democrat incumbent Hervey Machen. During this campaign, Hogan exposed corruption in the Prince George’s County government for organized gambling, bribery, and illegal zoning practices, which led to the conviction of Democratic County Commissioner Jesse S. Baggett and several other officials.
From 1967 to 1968, Hogan was appointed to the Maryland Governor’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. This commission was responsible for planning and improving law enforcement, criminal justice, and crime prevention to make those systems more efficient and reduce factors that led to increased criminal behavior. Hogan was also appointed by the Speaker of the House to the Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling in 1967.
Hogan made his second attempt for a Congressional seat representing Maryland’s 5th District in 1968, once again facing Democrat incumbent Machen. This time, Hogan won the seat with 52.7 percent of the votes. During this time, Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, and Prince George’s County was rapidly changing from a rural, mostly white-working class population to a more urbanized community with a growing black population. Throughout his campaign, Hogan championed conservative causes, including pro-life stances and opposition to forced busing to desegregate schools. Hogan easily won his re-elections in 1970 and 1972, winning with more than 60 percent of the votes each time.
During his time in Congress, Hogan served on several committees, including the Post Office and Civil Service Committee and the House Judiciary Committee (1971-1974), where he made one of the most impactful decisions of his career. Hogan was one of 38 members of the committee who presided over the formal hearings on the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal and other illegal activities. On July 23, 1974, four days before the vote for the First Article of Impeachment, Hogan stated before the Judiciary Committee that “Richard M. Nixon has, beyond a reasonable doubt, committed impeachable offenses which, in my judgment, are of sufficient magnitude that he should be removed from office.”
Hogan was the first Republican minority committee member to call for the impeachment of President Nixon and the only Republican to vote yes on all three articles of impeachment. This decision was a blow to President Nixon and his administration since up to this point, Hogan was seen as a loyal Nixon supporter and a reliable conservative Republican voice in Congress. Hogan’s decision to vote for impeachment was largely unpopular with his constituents and fellow Republicans. He received many letters from people in-state and out-of-state voicing their displeasure and disagreement with his decision. His vote most likely cost Hogan his party’s nomination in the 1974 gubernatorial race for Maryland’s governor position. He lost the primary to Louise Gore, Maryland’s Republican National Committeewoman, who later lost to Democrat incumbent Governor Marvin Mandel.
After losing the gubernatorial race, Hogan and his second wife, Ilona Modly Hogan, whom he married in 1974, opened up the law firm Hogan and Hogan. Hogan and his first wife had divorced in 1972. Hogan and Ilona had four children together, Matthew, Michael, Patrick, and Timothy. Patrick N. Hogan was the former Republican Delegate representing Maryland’s District 3A (2003-2007). The Hogan and Hogan law firm had two locations, one in Washington, D.C., which Hogan managed, and one in Maryland, which Ilona managed. Hogan also kept busy with other positions as the general counsel of Rollinson and Schaumberg law firm (1975) and as Executive Vice President and general counsel for Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) (1977-1978). In addition, Hogan continued to be involved in politics, becoming the Maryland National Republican Committeeman in 1976, assisting with the election for the new Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman, and the re-election of President Gerald Ford versus Ronal Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Hogan was also a Delegate for the Republican National Conventions in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1980.
In 1978, Hogan ran for the seat of Prince George’s County Executive against Democratic incumbent Winfield M. Kelly, Jr. At the time, a tax revolt was occurring in Prince George’s County as voters passed TRIM, the Truth in Millage Act, which capped property taxes. Hogan centered his campaign on tax reform, which helped Hogan win with 60 percent of the votes. Hogan became the only Republican in a government full of Democrats. During his four-year term as County Executive, Hogan reduced the county’s property tax rate by 20 percent, cut the county budget, and eliminated 2,400 public employees from the county payroll. His aggressive and action-oriented decisions led to public clashes with the police, teachers, and public employee unions. According to his obituary, written by Matt Schudel in the Washington Post (2017), Hogan was also credited with “improving the county's low-income housing program and with doubling the number of African American police officers, including naming the first black deputy police chief in Prince George's.”
In 1982, Hogan ran for a seat in the Senate, challenging Democratic incumbent Paul Sarbanes, a former colleague on the House Judiciary Committee. Sarbanes retained his seat with more than 63 percent of the vote. Following this unsuccessful race, Hogan retired from public politics and returned to practicing law, teaching, and writing. In 1988, he became the vice president of Driggs Corp., a construction company, and lectured at the National Emergency Management Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
He published two nonfiction books, The Osage Indian Murders (1998) and Legal Aspects of the Fire Service (1995), and one fiction book, The Ghost of Harmony Hall (2002). Hogan also wrote poetry and articles for various magazines and journals, which included The Maryland Police Journal, The Law Officer, Realtor - a journal of the National Association of Real Estate Board, and Apartment World - the publication for the Apartment Association of America. He also edited several books, including Finally Heard: Heroines of the Uncivil War by Angela D’Ambrosia (1997) and Terrorism: Defensive Strategies for Individuals, Companies and Governments (2001).
Throughout his career, Hogan was a member of numerous associations, boards, commissions, and committees. These include, but are not limited to the American Bar Association; American Judicature Society; D.C. Bar Association; Federal Bar Association; Georgetown University Alumni Association; Gonzaga Alumni Association; Maryland Crime Commission; Naval Reserve Law Company 5-11, chairman of Prince George's Republican Action Committee; Public Relations Society of America; REALTORS® Political Action Committee (RPAC); Society of American Travel Writers; Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI; and Washington Board of Trade.
Following a stroke, Lawrence Joseph Hogan, Sr., died on April 20, 2017 at the age of 88. He was buried at St. John’s Cemetery in Federick, Maryland.
The collection is organized into seven series with additional subseries in each series:
This collection contains audiovisual materials. Items that cannot be used in the Special Collections reading room or are too fragile for researchers require that a digital copy be made prior to use. If you would like to access these materials, please contact us prior to your visit, so we may determine the proper steps to be taken.
This collection contains born-digital materials. Items may require specialized software for access. If you would like to access these materials, please contact us prior to your visit, so we may determine the proper steps to be taken.
This collection is stored offsite. For more information about requesting offsite materials please see our offsite policies: https://www.lib.umd.edu/special/policies/offsite.
Lawrence Joseph Hogan, Sr. donated his papers to the University of Maryland Special Collections and University Archives in 1974, 1977, and 1982, with the bulk of Hogan’s papers accessioned in 1975 by University Archivist Mary Boccaccio. Two additional accessions were donated by Ilona Modly Hogan in 2022 and 2023.
Due to preservation and housing concerns, oversize documents and maps were taken out of the record boxes and placed either in a map drawer or in an oversize flat box. Maps were numbered at the item level across the collection, whether they were part of a folder or the whole folder was only maps (see the Oversize inventory). Oversize documents placed in the flat boxes were not numbered at the item level as folders contained several items. Both the map folders and flat boxes have a separation sheet in their containers and the corresponding folders. Separations are indicated by the container listing on the finding aid in addition to separation sheets in the items' original box or folder.
A majority of the files in the Hogan papers were organized following a “1972 Filing Classification System” that Hogan’s administration incorporated for organizing the numerous documents generated by constituent correspondence, Hogan’s work in Congress, background research materials, and administrative files. This 1972 filing system used a numerical classification system to group related documents together (e.g. 90. Committees of the House, 90.1 Agricultural Committee, 50. Maryland Government, 50.4 Comptroller of the Treasury) by year. Many folders will have this numerical classification in addition to the folder title. Files pre-dating 1972 and the subject files were usually organized alphabetically by subject matter, date, and/or the sender’s last name. For many of the constituent correspondence materials, there are carbon copies of the reply letters, many of which were a standardized form letter.
On the Finding Aid, many of the folder titles in the Federal Executive Departments, Legislative Files, and Independent Agencies subseries will have hyphenated prefixes added to the titles (e.g., Department of Agriculture -, Committees of the House - Judiciary -, Congressional Clips -, Environmental Protection Agency -, etc.) to group related folders together to follow the original intellectual order of the collection created by Hogan’s administration. Most of the physical folders' titles will not have the prefix phrase. They will have either the number classification system from the original intellectual order or the same type of titling format.
For the original accession, the previous processor(s) transferred the materials into archival record center boxes totaling 170 boxes, 4 flat boxes of audiovisual materials, 2 Hollinger boxes of press releases, 1 box of memorabilia, and a folder of photos. In 2001, a box-level preliminary inventory was created for the 170 boxes.
The two new accruals donated in 2022 and 2023 included six trunks of publications, documents, and audiovisual materials related to Lawrence J. Hogan, Sr.'s work on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation and the impeachment proceedings against President Richard M. Nixon. The materials were treated by an external vendor due to evidence of environmental and pest damage.
From October 2023 through June 2024, Irene M. Lewis completed an in-depth collection inventory and enhance the finding aid. Following a minimal and extensible processing plan, Lewis created a folder-level inventory of all the materials in the Hogan collection, enhanced the accession records and the finding aid, and rehoused materials in new boxes. Inventorying of all the folders was completed in February 2024; the finding aid was completed in June 2024.
Processing activities include creating new folders, removing duplicates, rusted metal fasteners and rubber bands, and rehousing audiovisual materials. Folders with labels falling off were replaced with new ones, and documents in envelopes were removed from the envelopes and placed in new folders. Loose materials in the boxes were grouped by either subject or month and placed in new folders with titles created following existing folders with similar material. Empty folders were removed, with titles noted in the preliminary folder-level inventory. Many of the folders were also overstuffed, thus requiring the processor to split those folders into several and numbering as needed (e.g., Energy Crisis 1, Energy Crisis 2, Steering Committee (1/2), Steering Committee (2/2)). Newspaper clippings and photographs are intermingled with documents, and the processor left them together, with photographs placed in photo sleeves. Many of the newspaper clippings are from the Washington Post, The Evening Sun, The Baltimore Sun, Prince George’s County Sentinel, and other state and local newspapers. Many of the clippings are glued to printer paper with the date and publication written on the paper and, due to deterioration, are detaching from the paper. Buffer paper was interwoven between the acidic newspaper clippings and documents. Many documents are stapled and/or paper clipped together; the processor only removed metal fasteners that showed signs of rust.
The audiovisual materials include cassette tapes, VHS tapes, audio reels, and film reels. Hogan’s administration sometimes reused reels and the old title can be seen crossed out on the original boxes. They are identified at an item level within each box and numbered sequentially across the collection. Oversize documents and maps were taken out of the record boxes, unfolded and placed either in a map drawer or in an oversize flat box. Maps were numbered at the item level sequentially across the collection, whether they were part of a folder or the whole folder was only maps (see the Oversize inventory). Oversize documents placed in the flat boxes were not numbered at the item level as folders contained several items. Both the map folders and flat boxes have a separation sheet in their containers and the corresponding folders. All the boxes, record size and flat boxes are numbered sequentially across the collection.
Some materials with condition issues were sent to the Preservation Department for treatment. These materials includes documents stuck to envelope flaps and letters with bioglogical rocks. The stuck documents wwere separated through the process of dehumidification. The rocks were encapuslated in the archival standard bags attached to a buffered board and separated out with their letters into thier own box. This decision was made to ensure the docuemnts would not be pressed and warped by the rocks.
Fifty-two boxes of materials were identified for deaccessioning as the Acting Curator for the processing project deemed them out-of-scope for the collection. Folders recommended for deaccessioning consist of requests, resumes, office supplies, and personal financial files. The materials also include publications (largely government publications, plaques, and unplayable audiovisual materials.
Hogan’s administration created carbon copies of reply letters to most constituent correspondence letters. The reply letters are usually dated several months after the date of the letters sent to his office by constituents. On the Finding Aid, the dates given are based on the dates of the carbon reply letters and not the original letter from the constituents.
Using examples from other special collections of Congressional papers, the processor organized the series based on Hogan’s major careers from the 1950s to the 1980s. For the subseries, the processor followed the groupings created in the 1972 filing system. In total, seven series were created. Several publications were separately cataloged under Maryland and Historical Collections books.
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