Maurice Hinchey  Maurice Dunlea Hinchey (October 27, 1938 – November 22, 2017) was a U.S. Representative from New York. He was a member of the Democratic Party. He retired at the end of his term in January 2013 after twenty years in Congress. A New York City native who moved to the Hudson Valley where he attended high school and college, Hinchey had previously represented part of the area in the New York State Assembly since 1975. As chair of that body's Environmental Conservation Committee, he took the lead in bringing environmental issues to the fore, particularly when he held hearings on the problems created by toxic waste disposal in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls. In his later years in Congress he vehemently opposed hydraulic fracturing to exploit the natural gas resources of the Marcellus Shale. Throughout his career he was considered a political progressive for his liberal stands on other issues. Hinchey was born to a working-class family on the Lower West Side of Manhattan, the son of Rose (Bonack) and Maurice D. Hinchey. He grew up in Saugerties, New York. After graduating from high school, Hinchey enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and served in the Pacific on the destroyer USS "Marshall". After being honorably discharged, he spent two years working as a laborer in a cement plant. While in college he earned his tuition working as a toll collector on the New York State Thruway. He graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz with a B.A. in 1968 and an M.A. in 1970. Hinchey first sought public office in 1972, with an unsuccessful race for the New York State Assembly. Ulster County was a Republican stronghold, but Hinchey ran successfully in 1974, becoming the first Democrat to represent Ulster County since 1912. Hinchey remained in the Assembly until 1992, and was a member of the 180th, 181st, 182nd, 183rd, 184th, 185th, 186th, 187th, 188th and 189th New York State Legislatures. He was particularly noted for his work on protecting the natural environment. For fourteen years he chaired the Committee on Environmental Conservation. Hinchey also served on the Ways and Means, Rules, Banks, Health, Higher Education, Labor, Energy and Agriculture committees. During his chairmanship of the Committee on Environmental Conservation, the committee conducted a successful investigation into the causes of "Love Canal," the nation's first major toxic dump site.