Representative Newton Ivan Steers

Newton Ivan Steers Jr. (January 13, 1917 – February 11, 1993) was an American businessman, attorney, and Republican politician who served as a United States Representative from Maryland’s 8th congressional district from January 3, 1977, to January 3, 1979. A member of the Republican Party, he contributed to the legislative process during one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the interests of his Maryland constituents during a significant period in American political history.

Steers was born on January 13, 1917, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to Newton Ivan Steers and Claire L. Steers. His father served for seventeen years as president of the DuPont Film Manufacturing Corporation. Newton Steers Jr. was the youngest of five children; his siblings were Helen Steers, who married George Van Trump Burgess; Charlotte Steers, who married Paul Van Winkle; a sister known as Mrs. W. Breckinridge De Riemer; and Margaret Steers, who married L. H. Brague Jr. He spent his early years in the New York metropolitan area and attended public schools in White Plains, New York, before moving on to prestigious preparatory and university education.

Steers graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, in 1935 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1939. He pursued further technical and professional training during and after World War II. In 1943, he obtained a Certificate of Advanced Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reflecting the wartime demand for specialized scientific knowledge. After the war, he returned to Yale and earned a J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1948. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1958 and later to the District of Columbia bar in 1967, formalizing his transition into the legal profession.

Before and after his military service, Steers built a substantial career in business and government-related enterprises. He worked for the DuPont company from 1939 to 1941, prior to entering the armed forces. During World War II, he served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1941 to 1946, applying his meteorological training to the war effort. Following his discharge, he joined GAF Corporation, where he worked from 1948 to 1951, and then served with the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1951 to 1953, a period when atomic energy policy and regulation were emerging as major national concerns. In the private sector, he became president of several investment companies in New York from 1953 through 1965. During the 1950s he was reported to have made his fortune through investing in mutual funds, notably forming the Atomic Development Mutual Fund in 1953 with a group of associates. That fund specialized in securities of companies involved in activities arising from the natural sciences, reflecting Steers’s interest in technology and postwar scientific development.

Steers’s formal political career began in the early 1960s. In 1962, he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election to the 88th Congress. He nevertheless rose quickly within party ranks, serving as Maryland Republican state chairman from 1964 to 1966 and as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1964. In 1967, Governor Spiro T. Agnew appointed him Maryland state insurance commissioner, a position he held until 1970. That year he became Maryland assistant secretary of licensing and regulation, and he was elected to the Maryland State Senate, where he served from 1971 to 1977. His state legislative service coincided with a period of significant debate over regulation, consumer protection, and economic policy, and it helped establish his credentials for federal office. He later returned as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1984.

In 1976, Steers was elected as a Republican to the 95th Congress from Maryland’s 8th congressional district, defeating Democrat Lanny Davis and independent candidate Robin Ficker. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from January 3, 1977, to January 3, 1979. During his term, he participated in the democratic process at the federal level and contributed to the legislative work of the House, representing suburban Maryland communities during the post-Watergate era and the early years of the Carter administration. He ran for reelection in 1978 to the 96th Congress but was defeated by Democrat Michael D. Barnes. Steers challenged Barnes again in 1980 but was again unsuccessful. In 1982, he sought statewide office as the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Maryland, losing to Democrat J. Joseph Curran Jr. Despite these defeats, his congressional and statewide campaigns underscored his continuing prominence within Maryland Republican politics.

Steers’s personal life connected him to several notable American families. In 1957, he married Nina Gore Auchincloss (born 1937), daughter of Hugh D. Auchincloss and Nina S. Gore. Through this marriage, Steers became linked to a complex network of political and social figures: Nina S. Gore had previously been married to Eugene Vidal and was the mother of writer Gore Vidal, making Vidal his wife’s half-brother. Hugh D. Auchincloss later married Janet Lee Bouvier, mother of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who thereby became a stepsister to Nina Gore Auchincloss. Jacqueline Kennedy served as matron of honor at the Steers–Auchincloss wedding, and then-Senator John F. Kennedy was one of the groomsmen. Newton and Nina Steers had three children: Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1962–1995), a painter who died of AIDS-related complications; Ivan Steers; and Burr Gore Steers (born 1965), who became a writer and filmmaker. The couple divorced in 1974.

In 1978, Steers married Inge Gabriele (née Wirsich) Irwin, with whom he remained married until his death. Through this marriage he gained a stepson, Kristof Andreas Irwin, from Inge’s previous marriage. In his later years, Steers resided in Bethesda, Maryland, remaining active in civic and political circles and maintaining his ties to business and public affairs. He died at his home in Bethesda on February 11, 1993, after a long battle with cancer. Newton Ivan Steers Jr. was remembered as a businessman, lawyer, and public servant whose career spanned wartime service, federal regulatory work, state government leadership, and a term in the United States Congress.