Peter H. Dominick

Who was Peter H. Dominick?

Peter Hoyt Dominick was a politician and lawyer from Colorado. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the United States Senate from 1963 to 1975. His uncle, Howard Alexander Smith, was a U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1944 to 1959.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Dominick graduated from St. Mark's School in 1933, from Yale University in 1937 as a member of Scroll and Key, and Yale Law School in 1940. He practiced law in New York City from 1940 until 1942, when he entered the United States Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet at the outset of American fighting in World War II. He served until his separation from military service in 1945, as a captain. He briefly recommenced his legal practice in New York City in 1946, before moving that same year to Denver, Colorado, where he continued to practice.

Dominick entered politics when he was elected as a Republican to the Colorado House of Representatives, where he served from 1957 to 1961. In 1960, he made a successful run for the United States House of Representatives, defeating incumbent freshman Democrat Byron L. Johnson, and he abandoned his law career in 1961.