James Kolbe papers

James Kolbe was born on June 28, 1942 in Evanston, Illinois but moved to a ranch in Santa Cruz County, Arizona in 1947. He attended Patagonia Union High School and graduated from the United States Capitol Page School in 1960 after serving as a US Senate Page to Barry Goldwater. He graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1965 and from Stanford University with a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Economics in 1967. He served in the United States Navy in Vietnam from 1968-1969 and the United States Naval Reserves from 1970-1977. He married Sarah Dinham in 1977 but they divorced in 1992.

In 1976 Kolbe ran for the Arizona Senate in District 14 and served 3 terms. He was majority whip from 1979 to 1982. In 1982 he ran for the US House of Representatives in the newly created 5th congressional district (later renamed the 8th district) but lost to Democrat Jim McNulty. In 1984 he ran again and won. He would then be reelected for the next 10 terms.

Kolbe served on various committees including Small Business, Budget and Selective Committee on Aging. From 1986-2006 Kolbe served on the Committee on Appropriations including serving as the chair of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs for six years as well as the chair of the Treasury, Post Office and Related agencies subcommittee for four years.

Kolbe was a fiscally conservative Republican and social moderate. He was pro-choice and known for his expertise on trade especially the North American Free Trade Agreement. In 1996 Kolbe became the second Republican congressman to announce he was gay.

Since 2007 Kolbe has served as a senior transatlantic fellow for the German Marshall Fund of the United States. There he advised on trade, development and US assistance to foreign countries. He also worked for McLarty Associates as a senior advisor. He died in 2022.