Patrick J. Stapleton Jr.
American politician
Patrick J. Stapleton (January 7, 1924 – March 13, 2001) was a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate.
Life
Stapleton, a native of Indiana, Pennsylvania, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He graduated from Indiana State Teachers College, now known as Indiana University of Pennsylvania, in 1949.
He was sworn in as a Pennsylvania State Senator for the 41st senatorial district on June 8, 1970. He would become known as a "fixture in the state Senate." He served as a leader in the Democratic Caucus as Policy Committee Chairman from 1983 through 1996 and as Caucus Administrator beginning in 1997.
Stapleton retired prior to the 2000 election, supporting the eventual Democratic nominee, Jim McQuown in the "wide-open race" to succeed him. However, McQuown lost to Donald C. White 54–46 in the general election. He died in 2001.
Legacy
The Patrick J. Stapleton Jr. Library at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania is named after him.
His son, Patrick, is a member of the State Liquor Control Board.
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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 Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7146825. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1924, 2001, 1949 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “Patrick J. Stapleton Jr.” 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.