Paul Douglas Coverdell (January 20, 1939 – July 18, 2000) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Georgia, elected for the first time in 1992 and re-elected in 1998, and director of the Peace Corps from 1989 until 1991. Coverdell died from a cerebral hemorrhage in Atlanta, Georgia in 2000 while serving in the United States Senate. He was a member of the Republican Party. Early life Coverdell was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1939 and lived much of his childhood in the Midwest. Coverdell graduated from Lee's Summit High School in Lees Summit, Missouri. and went on to graduate from the University of Missouri in 1961 with a degree in journalism. While in college, Coverdell was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Coverdell joined the Army in 1962 and served as a captain in Okinawa, Taiwan, and Korea. After completing his service Coverdell settled in Atlanta with his wife, Nancy. Coverdell began a career in insurance, founding the firm Coverdell & Co. Inc. with his father and becoming president of the family business in 1965. Georgia State Senator (1970–1989) Coverdell was unsuccessful in his first attempt to win election to the state senate in 1968 but he ran again and won in 1970 representing north Fulton County. Coverdell began serving as Senate Minority Leader in 1974, a position he held until he left the Georgia Senate in 1989. Coverdell worked with Democrats to accomplish his goals. Roy Barnes, a Democrat who would later be elected Governor of Georgia, said that when he joined the Georgia State Senate, Republican Coverdell took him under his political wing. "He showed that people of different parties could discuss their personal strengths and weaknesses," Barnes said. "I never worried that Paul would disclose anything I said." During Coverdell's time as Minority Leader he worked for pension reform, supported DUI legislation, and raising the legal drinking age in Georgia. In 1977 Coverdell lost a special election for Andrew Young's congressional seat to Wyche Fowler. After Coverdell's loss in 1977, he began working to develop a base for national Republican candidates and a viable statewide Republican Party organization. In 1985 Coverdell was elected Chairman of the Georgia GOP. In 1978, Coverdell was vacationing in Maine and decided to look up former Chairman of the Republican National Committee George H. W. Bush. Coverdell found Bush's address in a phone book,