Otis G. Pike

Otis Grey Pike (August 31, 1921 – January 20, 2014) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from New York.

Early life

Pike was born in Riverhead, New York. He served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific as a Dive Bomber and Night Fighter pilot from 1942 until 1946. He graduated from Princeton University in 1946 and Columbia Law School in 1948.

Public office

Pike was first elected to public office in the Town of Riverhead as a Justice of the Peace then ran for Congress from the 1st Congressional District of New York in 1958, an election which he lost. Two years later, he was elected to Congress in 1960 and represented New York's 1st congressional district from January 3, 1961 until January 3, 1979. As a Democrat, it is interesting to note that the NY 1st Congressional District in that same election gave the Republican candidate for president, Richard Nixon, the highest percentage of votes of any Congressional District in the country.

Pike was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and in the mid-1970s headed the Congressional Special Select Committee on Intelligence, the House version of the Senate Committee on Intelligence headed by Senator Frank Church. The House of Representatives voted 246-124 to direct that the Pike report not be released if not certified by the President not to contain classified information. However, the report was published by The Village Voice. In his final years in Congress, Pike served on the Ways and Means Committee.