Someone once called John Glenn 'Ike in a space suit.' And, like Dwight Eisenhower, he would seem to be an almost perfect candidate for the White House.
Glenn, the son of a plumber, grew up in a small Midwestern town and married the local dentist's daughter. He became an ace fighter pilot and one of America's original astronauts, and he won election to the Senate from Ohio.
Shedding his spaceman image and overcoming his political naivete, the former Marine colonel has earned the reputation of a hard-working senator with a thorough knowledge of issues.
And, perhaps even more important to a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, he has proven his ability to attract the votes of Republicans as well as Democrats.
Glenn was born 61 years ago in Cambridge, Ohio, grew up in neighboring New Concord and earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from nearby Muskingum College.
Following stints in World War II and Korea, Glenn piloted the first supersonic transcontinental flight July 16, 1957, going from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.
On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn boarded his Friendship 7 capsule and became the first American to orbit the earth.
His popularity from that mission made him a natural for politics, and he was courted by both parties. Though conservative, Glenn was a Democrat at heart and it was as a Democrat that he decided to make a bid for the Senate.
In 1964, Glenn prepared to challenge the cantankerous Sen. Stephen Young, D-Ohio, but he slipped in the bathroom of his Columbus apartment, injured his ear and was forced him to withdraw from the primary.
Glenn retired from the Marines in 1965 and became president of Royal Crown International, Inc. In 1969 he resigned to run for the Senate again.
Although Glenn was naive in the ways of politics, his supporters believed he would easily win the Democratic nomination in 1970.
But they failed to bank on the tenacity of Howard Metzenbaum, a self-made millionaire from Cleveland whose liberal views were attractive to organized labor.
Metzenbaum squeaked past Glenn by 13,442 votes out of 930,000 cast. Metzenbaum lost the Senate race to Republican Robert Taft Jr. and Glenn returned to private business.
In 1973, Democratic Gov. John Gilligan had a chance to fill a vacancy in the Senate. Glenn wanted the job but Gilligan wanted Glenn to be his running mate for lieutenant governor in 1974 and appointed Metzenbaum.
Glenn scorned the lieutenant governor's slot and girded for another contest with Metzenbaum.
This time, Glenn was ready, and despite Metzenbaum's year of incumbency, the former astronaut whipped him by 92,000 votes in the Democratic primary. He went on to defeat Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk by more than 1 million votes.
In the Senate, Glenn worked on foreign trade, energy, economics, diplomacy and nuclear non-proliferation.
Attractive to almost everyone in the political spectrum he could, as one Washington political correspondent wrote, go 'from Gerald Ford to George McGovern in one breath.'
The trouble was that he took too many breaths, lectured like a schoolmaster and bored his audiences with technicalities.
His keynote address to the 1976 Democratic National Convention was a disaster and cost Glenn a chance at the vice presidential nomination. Presidential nominee Jimmy Carter chose Walter Mondale of Minnesota, now the front-runner for the 1984 presidential nomination.
Glenn has some other liabilities. His distaste for soliciting campaign funds is so strong that he once said, 'I'd rather wrestle a gorilla than ask for 50 cents.' He is reluctant to 'toot my own horn,' and he prefers the epochal issues to the politically sexy ones.
One of Glenn's greatest assets is his vivacious wife, Annie, who has overcome a major stuttering problem and makes campaign appearances for him.
Their son, David, 37, is an anesthesiologist in Kensington, Calif., and he and his wife Karen have the senator's only grandchild, 7-month old Daniel. Daughter Lyn, 36, lives in Vail, Colo., with her husband, Dr. Philip Freedman.
