Education
He graduated from Saint Joseph"s High School in South Bend, Indiana. He graduated in 1968 with a degree in Government from the University of Notre Dame, where he was a resident of Stanford Hall.
baseball player lieutenant governor officer
He graduated from Saint Joseph"s High School in South Bend, Indiana. He graduated in 1968 with a degree in Government from the University of Notre Dame, where he was a resident of Stanford Hall.
He became Governor on September 13, 2003, upon the death of Governor Frank O"Bannon. He lost an election to serve a full term as Governor to former Office of Management and Budget director Mitch Daniels on November 2, 2004. Kernan returned to South Bend and retired from politics.
Joe Kernan was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1946.
Kernan played baseball at Notre Dame in 1967 and 1968. Kernan entered the United States Navy in 1969 and served as a Naval Flight Officer aboard the carrier United States Ship Kitty Hawk.
In May 1972, Kernan was shot down by enemy forces while on a reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam. He was held as a prisoner of war for 11 months.
Kernan was repatriated in 1973 and continued on active duty with the Navy until December 1974.
Kernan was elected as Mayor of South Bend in 1987, 1991, and 1995. In 1996, Kernan was elected as Indiana"s Lieutenant Governor, and then re-elected in 2000. As Lieutenant Governor, Kernan served as the President of the Indiana Senate, the Director of the Indiana Department of Commerce, and as the Commissioner of Agriculture.
Originally, Kernan declined to seek the governorship during the 2004 election, but decided to do so upon assuming the governorship after the death of Frank O"Bannon.
He was defeated by Mitch Daniels for a full four-year term in 2004. After losing the election to Daniels, Kernan returned to private life and became president of the South Bend Silver Hawks baseball club
In July 2007, Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard were appointed by Daniels to co-chair the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform.
Kernan, a member of the Democratic Party, previously served as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and then as the 47th Lieutenant Governor of Indiana from 1997 to 2003.