Topic: Robert McDonnell

Robert Francis "Bob" McDonnell (born June 15, 1954) is the 71st and current Governor of Virginia and a former lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. McDonnell served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1993 until he was elected Attorney General in 2005. After campaigning as a pragmatist, McDonnell was elected as the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, defeating state Senator Creigh Deeds by a seventeen point margin in the 2009 general election. McDonnell was inaugurated on January 16, 2010 on the steps of the Virginia State Capitol and succeeded Tim Kaine.

Robert Francis McDonnell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a family of Irish descent. His family moved to Fairfax County, Virginia when he was one year old. McDonnell spent four years of his early childhood in Germany when his father John McDonnell, a United States Air Force officer, was sent out on assignment. After returning to Virginia four years later, the McDonnells permanently established residence in Fairfax County. His mother, Emma, worked at Mount Vernon. McDonnell graduated from Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1972. While attending Bishop Ireton High School, McDonnell played football and broke the T. C. Williams High School shut out streak of 20 quarters by scoring a touchdown with minutes left in the game.

McDonnell attended the University of Notre Dame on an ROTC scholarship, graduating with a B.B.A. in management in 1976. Immediately following graduation, he served as a medical supply officer in the United States Army for four years. His military posts were medical clinics in Germany from 1976 to 1979, and in Newport News, Virginia from 1979 to 1981. In addition, McDonnell took night classes and received an M.S.B.A. from Boston University in 1980. After leaving active duty in 1981, McDonnell worked for the American Hospital Supply Corporation, primarily in the custom products regional division.