Jim Courter

Jim Courter
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 12th district
In office January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1991
Preceded by	Matthew J. Rinaldo
Succeeded by	Dick Zimmer
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 13th district
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1983
Preceded by	Helen Stevenson Meyner
Succeeded by	Edwin B. Forsythe
Personal details
Born	(1941-10-14) October 14, 1941 Montclair, New Jersey
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	Colgate University Duke University School of Law

James Andrew "Jim" Courter (born October 14, 1941) is an United States Republican Party politician, lawyer and businessman. He is a resident of Hackettstown, New Jersey.

Biography

He was born October 14, 1941 in Montclair, New Jersey.

He is Chairman of the Lexington Institute and CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the IDT Corporation, based in Newark, New Jersey. Courter also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the company's subsidiaries IDT Telecom, IDT Media, and IDT Winstar.

Beginning in 1971, Courter was a senior partner in the New Jersey law firm of Courter, Kobert, Laufer & Cohen. He was a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand from January 1994 to September 1996.

His career in public service included representing New Jersey as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years, from 1979 until 1991. He was nominated as the Republican Party's nominee for Governor of New Jersey in 1989, but lost in a landslide defeat to Democrat Jim Florio and decided not to run for reelection to congress in 1990. From 1991 to 1994, Courter held the cabinet-level position of chairman of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission having been appointed by both President George Herbert Walker Bush and President Bill Clinton; the Commission oversaw the restructuring of the United States' domestic military base infrastructure.

After law school, Courter became a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela. He is Chairman of the Lexington Institute, a think tank dedicated to resolving issues of foreign policy, national security, and international trade. Courter currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Advisors for the Graduate School of Management at Rutgers University, he is a member of the Board of Trustees for Berkeley College, and is a member of the Drew University Board of Visitors. Courter is on the Board of Trustees of the Newark Museum, is a member of the New Jersey Network Foundation Board of Trustees, and was named an adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Courter also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Liberty Science Center, the Board of Trustees of the Newark Alliance, and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Centenary College of New Jersey.

A lifelong resident of New Jersey, Courter graduated from Montclair Academy in 1959, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963 from Colgate University and a Juris Doctor degree from Duke University School of Law in 1966.

Jim Courter was chairman of the Committee for the Common Defense at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, which was in 1995 responsible for writing a letter in support of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bomber that seven former Secretaries of Defense (representing every Democratic and Republican Administration since Richard Nixon) signed.

He wrote two books:

• Jim Courter, Defending Democracy, American Studies Center, June 1, 1986 ISBN 0-931727-04-9
• Jim Courter, Defense Base Closure & Realignment Commission: Report to the President, Diane Publishing Co, April 1, 1994 ISBN 0-7881-0695-3

External links

• Jim Courter at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Helen Stevenson Meyner	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 13th congressional district 1979–1983	Succeeded by Edwin B. Forsythe
Preceded by Matthew John Rinaldo	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 12th congressional district 1983–1991	Succeeded by Dick Zimmer
Party political offices
Preceded by Thomas Kean	Republican Nominee for Governor of New Jersey 1989	Succeeded by Christine Todd Whitman