After serving as a military intelligence officer in World War II, Frank Church earned a law degree and worked briefly as a lawyer before being elected as one of the nation’s youngest senators at 30 years old. He would champion liberal causes and sponsored the Wilderness Act and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. He is most known for heading the Church Committee that inspired the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He also led efforts to ratify the treaty to return the Panama Canal to Panama.
