In his sixteen years as a U.S. Congressman from Oklahoma, Michael L. Synar distinguished himself for his unwavering commitment to serve the public interest, no matter how powerful the foe or great the political risk. As a leader of the anti-smoking forces in Congress, Synar introduced legislation to restrict advertising of tobacco products and to include tobacco in the list of products regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and passed a bill requiring a warning label on smokeless tobacco. He also led the campaign for public land reform and called on ranchers and mining and timber companies to pay fair market value for their use of federal lands. In addition, Synar single-handedly challenged the 1985 Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction plan and the legality of key provisions of the bill, which were later declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1994 Synar paid the price for his commitment to the public interest when he lost his bid for a ninth term, finally succumbing to the cumulative efforts of a controversial voting record that was often at odds with his rural Oklahoma district and to the relentless efforts of powerful special interests to unseat him. He died in January 1996.