In 2005, he joined the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando. He served as International President of Kiwanis-sponsored Key Club International (1959–1960). He attended Baptist and Episcopal churches but later was baptized through immersion in a Baptist church. Nelson grew up in Melbourne, Florida, where he attended Melbourne High School. His father died of a heart attack when Nelson was 14 and his mother of Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) when he was 24. He is of Scottish, Irish, English, and Danish descent. Nelson was born on September 29, 1942, in Miami, Florida, the only child of Nannie Merle (née Nelson) and Clarence William Nelson.
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He was later elected Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal of Florida, serving from 1995 to 2001. Nelson retired from Congress in 1990 to run for governor of Florida, but was unsuccessful. Before entering politics he served in the U.S. Congress to fly in space, after Senator Jake Garn, when he served as a payload specialist on mission STS-61-C aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. In January 1986, Nelson became the second sitting member of U.S. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1972 to 1978 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1991. Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Florida from 2001 to 2019. Member of the Florida House of RepresentativesĬlarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce CommitteeĢ2nd Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, and Fire Marshal of Florida