Fife Symington
American politician
John Fife Symington III (born August 12, 1945) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 19th governor of Arizona from 1991 until his resignation in 1997 following convictions on charges of extortion and bank fraud, which were later overturned. A member of the Republican Party, Symington served in the United States Air Force and was stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona prior to entering politics. Linked to the Symington family, He is the son of J. Fife Symington Jr., the United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago during the Nixon administration, the cousin of Stuart Symington, a United States Senator from Missouri, and the younger brother of Martha Frick Symington Sanger, an author.
A native of New York City, Symington attended the Gilman School in Baltimore; he subsequently graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Dutch art history. Symington comes from a political family: his father, J. Fife Symington Jr., served as Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago; his cousin Stuart Symington was a U.S. Senator from Missouri. After joining the Air Force in 1967 and achieving the rank of captain, Symington was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service. He was honorably discharged in 1971. He remained in Arizona and became a real estate developer, founding his own company, the Symington Company, in 1976.
Symington was elected to the governorship in 1990 over Democratic Mayor of Phoenix Terry Goddard, following a close campaign that resulted in a runoff election. During his first term, Symington established charter schools in Arizona by signing sweeping education reform legislation, with the first charter schools opening in the state in 1995.
The public source identifies “Fife Symington” as american politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fife, Symington and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q699900. VIAF identifies the subject as 73422972. The Library of Congress control number is no93005457. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 1991, 1997 and 1967.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fife Symington” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.