ANNAPOLIS, Md., Aug. 26 (AP) — Daniel Baugh Brewster, a former senator and World War II hero who went on to overcome alcohol addiction and battle a political scandal, died on Aug. 19 at his home in Owings Mills. He was 83.
The cause was liver cancer, his son Gerry said.
Mr. Brewster, a Democrat, was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates to represent Baltimore County in 1950, when he was 26, and was re-elected in 1954. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1958, representing Baltimore, Harford and Carroll Counties, and was re-elected in 1960. He was elected to the Senate in 1962, when he was 39.
Mr. Brewster was a co-sponsor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He also sponsored a measure to create the Assateague Island National Seashore.
The year after losing his Senate re-election campaign to Charles McC. Mathias in 1968, Mr. Brewster, who was also a lawyer, was indicted and found guilty of accepting an unlawful gratuity without corrupt intent.
The case involved his vote for low postal rates and campaign contributions from a mail order catalog. That charge was overturned on appeal. But the authorities indicated that they would prosecute him again, his son said. Mr. Brewster decided to plead no contest to accepting an unlawful gratuity without corrupt intent. He was fined $10,000 and kept his law license.
Alcoholism was another hurdle, and he eventually gained sobriety, his son said.
Mr. Brewster was 10 years old and the oldest of five children when his father died. He enrolled at Princeton in 1942 but left to volunteer for the Marines when he was 19. He fought in Guam in 1944 and on Okinawa in 1945.
Returning from the war, he attended Johns Hopkins University. He graduated from the University of Maryland Law School in 1949. Mr. Brewster joined John G. Turnbull, majority leader of the Maryland Senate, to set up a law firm in 1949.
Mr. Brewster also was an avid steeplechase racer.
In addition to his son Gerry, survivors include his wife, Judy Lynn; two other sons, Daniel B. Jr. and Dana; two daughters, Danielle Brewster Oster and Jennilie Brewster; two stepchildren, Kurt Aarsand and Krista A. Bedford; two brothers, Andre and Walter; and a sister, Frances Cochran Smith.
