Jake Garn, now 74, the former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, serves on numerous national and international corporate boards, including the Morgan Stanley financial firm, a Japanese bank, Nu Skin and Franklin Covey.
Garn also flew on the space shuttle while a senator who chaired the appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA. He is also on the board of the United Space Alliance.
"It runs the space shuttle. It doesn't seem fair to be paid to oversee flying the shuttle. I really enjoy still being involved in space travel," Garn says.
"In fact, 'Senator Garn' died a long time ago. But 'astronaut Garn' is still alive. About 95 percent of the talks that I am requested to give are about space, and virtually none are about Congress," he says.
Garn also serves on 13 volunteer boards, for groups ranging from the Primary Children's Medical Center Foundation to the Kidney Foundation. (He once made headlines by donating a kidney to his daughter. He still jokes, "I left part of me behind in Washington — my left kidney, transplanted in my daughter who still lives there.")
It all keeps him busy. "I wouldn't want to ruin a good marriage by being home too much," he says.
What he does not miss about Congress is "its many late nights and heavy schedule. When my youngest daughter was 3, a picture of the Capitol came on TV. She said, 'Daddy, that's where you live.' I said, 'No, that's where I work.' She said, 'No, you live there."'
He says a main reason he walked away from Congress was truly to find a lifestyle where he could spend more time with his family. He says he knew how important that is because his first wife died shortly after he was first elected, and his current wife "was essentially raising seven kids by herself. Our family life improved dramatically" when he moved them out of Washington back to Utah, and commuted there more often.
Garn says about Congress, however, "I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would do it all over again. But it's different now. It's too partisan and nasty. I tell people about the old days when people like Barry Goldwater and Hubert Humphrey were great friends, even though they were as different as possible."
Garn adds that he remains active in politics, but as a campaign adviser and helper to other Republicans. "The only way for me to get out of politics would be to move out of Utah and to buy a hairpiece," he says.