William Floyd Weld is an American attorney, businessman and Republican politician from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Weld, a moderate Republican, served as the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts from 1981 to 1986 and as the head of the Department of Justice Criminal Division from 1986 to 1988. He was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1990 and served as the 68th Governor from 1991 to 1997. He was re-elected by the largest margin in Massachusetts' history in 1994 and was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate in 1996, losing to incumbent Democrat John Kerry. He resigned as Governor in 1997 to focus on his nomination by President Bill Clinton to serve as United States Ambassador to Mexico, but because of opposition by the more conservative Senate Foreign Relations committee Chairman Jesse Helms, he withdrew his nomination. He subsequently returned to the private sector and moved back to his home state of New York, where he launched an abortive attempt to be elected Governor of New York in 2006. [More at Wikipedia]

July 31st, 1945 in Smithtown (Age 79)