Death resulted from complications from surgery at Baylor St. Luke in Houston, according to his family. Mr. Starr used his role as independent counsel to go far beyond initial investigations into real estate transactions in Arkansas during Clinton’s tenure as the state’s attorney general in the late 1970s and later as governor. The investigations have led to questions about President Bill Clinton’s perjury about a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was impeached in December 1998 by the House but acquitted by the Senate. After Clinton’s impeachment, Mr. Starr would become president of Baylor University in Texas. But in May 2016, Baylor removed Mr. Starr as the university’s president after an investigation found the college had mishandled allegations of sexual assault against its football players. Mr. Starr remained chancellor and professor of law. The university also fired its football coach, Art Briles. A statement from Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone made no mention of his dismissal. “Judge Starr has been a dedicated public servant and a staunch supporter of the religious freedom that allows faith-based institutions like Baylor to flourish,” he said. For Clinton defenders, Whitewater has become shorthand for an ever-expanding effort by political opponents to find evidence of wrongdoing using the powers of an independent counsel. But Mr. Starr’s investigation brought the actual convictions down, including an 18-month prison sentence for Arkansas businesswoman Susan McDougal for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions about Whitewater-related investments. Lewinsky, in a tweet, wrote that Mr Starr’s thoughts “bring up complicated emotions”, but acknowledged it was a “painful loss for those who love him”. Making the 435-page Starr Report public in 1998 was not easy as an early attempt to use the Internet for broad access. Mr. Starr’s team wrote the document in WordPerfect, but congressional officials converted it to HTML, “the format used on the Internet,” the Washington Post reported at the time. This process resulted in a series of “mostly inconsequential” errors that “did not change the meaning of Starr’s report.” Kenneth Winston Starr, the youngest of three children, was born in Vernon, North Texas, on July 21, 1946. His father was a barber and a Church of Christ minister. His parents were both the children of farmers and family life centered around church and Sunday school teachings. Mr. Starr grew up mostly in San Antonio. Widely described as a serious straight arrow who carried himself with understated confidence, he excelled in all high school endeavors except sports and was elected class president. He said he was first electrified by national politics during the 1960 presidential campaign and particularly identified with Richard M. Nixon because of their common ancestry, though he said he later became a member of the New Democrats and a supporter of Hubert H. Humphrey in the 1968 presidential election. He sold Bibles door-to-door to pay his tuition at what is now Harding University, a Church of Christ school in Searcy, Ark., and threw himself into student activities before transferring to George Washington University after two years. He recalled the transition as a shock, seeing students protesting the Vietnam War he supported (even though he reportedly threw away his physicals for the draft). He stood out on campus in other ways, preferring a suit and tie as his class attire in an institution where blue jeans prevailed as the classy choice of his peers. He graduated in 1968 and then earned a master’s degree in political science the following year at Brown University in Providence. He completed his law degree at Duke University in 1973 and began his rapid rise through the legal ranks, eventually becoming a law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. In 1977, he joined the Los Angeles firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to practice corporate law and impressed one of the partners, William French Smith, who became attorney general after Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. The protégé he followed him to the Justice Department and distinguished himself on high-profile issues that shaped conservative policy on social issues, including reversing federal opposition to organized school prayer and seeking voluntary avenues other than busing to promote school desegregation. His course was amazing. At 37, he became the youngest person ever named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a seat considered a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. Azi Paybarah contributed to this report.
