Early Life and Education
Chaffetz was born in Los Gatos, California and raised in Arizona and Colorado with his younger brother Alex. His father had a Jewish upbringing and his mother was a Christian Scientist. Chaffetz converted to Mormonism during his last year of college. He attended Brigham Young University (BYU) on an athletic scholarship, and was the starting placekicker on the BYU football team in 1988 and 1989. He still holds the BYU individual records for most extra points attempted in a game, most extra points made in a game, and most consecutive extra points made in a game.
During his college years, Chaffetz was a Democrat. His father had previously been married to Democratic Governor Michael Dukakis's wife, Katherine, and his half-brother is former actor John Dukakis. Despite their different political affiliations, Chaffetz remains close with his brother and the Dukakis family. While a student at BYU, he was a Utah co-chairman for Michael Dukakis's 1988 campaign for U.S. President. After college, Chaffetz joined the local business community. His work included being a spokesman for Nu Skin International, a multi-level marketing company.
Read more about this topic: Jason Chaffetz
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)
“And all the great traditions of the Past
They saw reflected in the coming time.
And thus forever with reverted look
The mystic volume of the world they read,
Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
Till life became a Legend of the Dead.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“A woman might claim to retain some of the child’s faculties, although very limited and defused, simply because she has not been encouraged to learn methods of thought and develop a disciplined mind. As long as education remains largely induction ignorance will retain these advantages over learning and it is time that women impudently put them to work.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)