Barry Goldwater (1909-1998), American politician. Barry Morris Goldwater was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He attended the University of Arizona, leaving in 1929 to work in the family department store, of which he became president in 1937. He served in the Army Air Force in World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel and later, as reservist, rising to the rank of major general. After the war he was elected to the Phoenix City Council. In 1952 he was elected U.S. senator from Arizona, an office he held for two 6-year terms. When he received the Republican nomination for president in 1964, he chose to run for that office instead of seeking reelection to the Senate; he was defeated in the election by Lyndon B. Johnson. He was returned to the Senate in 1968, 1974, and 1980, but retired in 1986. His politics were characterized chiefly by a conservative approach to fiscal matters and a firm advocacy of states' rights. His books include The Conscience of a Conservative (1963) and The Conscience of a Country (1970).