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Claude Gilbert Mike McCormack was born on December 14, 1921 in Basil, Ohio (now part of Baltimore, Ohio). He began college at the University of Toledo in 1939, worked for two years and then spent the years from 1943 to 1946 in military service. From 1946 to 1949, he attended Washington State College and received bachelor and master degrees in Chemistry. He worked briefly at University of Puget Sound and then spent twenty years with the atomic energy facilities of the Atomic Energy Commission at Hanford, Washington.

McCormack was first elected to a public office as member of the Washington State House of Representative in 1956, as the Democratic Party nominee. He was re-elected in 1958, he then was elected to the State Senate in 1960, 1964 and 1968. In the State Senate, McCormack was a member of several important committees, including the Interim Budget Committee and the Joint Committee on Higher Education. He was often associated with public higher education in press coverage. He was a principal author of the legislation that combined and extended the junior colleges of the state into the Community College System during 1967 and 1968. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1970. His election was an upset victory over five-term Republican Representative Catherine May. In the United States Congress, McCormack emerged as an expert on energy matters, a prominent issue during the years of his congressional service. He was a member of the House Science and Technology Committee and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy Research and Production. He was an author of laws that authorized efforts that included matters such as solar energy, and his expertise on overall energy issue was acknowledged by Members of Congress of both political parties. At times, he took positions that were critical of the policies advocated by presidents and administrations of both political parties. His's fifth election campaign, in 1980, was unsuccessful.

He then worked in Washington DC for a number of years and later with Institute for Science and Society at Ellensburg, Washington. Mike McCormack passed away on November 7, 2020 in Medford, Oregon.