He attended the University of Chicago Law School and later worked as a dean there. After graduating from Swarthmore in 1955, he married his classmate, Alice Parker. But Hormel, who grew up on a 200-acre estate in a house with 26 bedrooms, did not want to follow them into the family business.
His grandfather George started the Minnesota-based meatpacking company that his father, Jay, later turned into a corporate juggernaut with the invention of Spam. Hormel belonged to one of America’s most prominent business families. So when Bill Clinton tapped one such donor, James Hormel, for the post in 1997, there was little reason to think the decision would prompt a protracted and vicious battle with congressional Republicans and end by making history. The country, which is smaller than Rhode Island and only slightly more populated than Wyoming, is the sort of cushy diplomatic posting typically reserved for generous but not terribly distinguished political donors.
It is hard to conceive of a less crucial post in American diplomacy than the ambassadorship to Luxembourg. A philanthropist who parlayed a Spam fortune and a Senate standoff into a place in gay history.
