John C. Bear is a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives who represents the 97th Legislative District in Lancaster County, the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. He is serving his third term as state representative.

First elected in 2006, John serves on the House Appropriations, Finance, Labor and Industry and Professional Licensure Committees. He was recently named to Governor Tom Corbett’s Transition Team as part of the Budget, Pension & Revenue Committee and was recognized by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as one of “10 to watch in 2011,” identifying ten of the most capable state lawmakers. The Pennsylvania Academy of Ophthalmology also named John as the recipient of their 2011 Community Service Award. 

Learn more on my Facebook page.

John is Vice President of Pennsylvania’s State Public School Building and Higher Educational Facilities Authorities’ Board of Directors and has been named as a delegate to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Executive Committee Task Force on State and Local Taxation of Communications and Electronic Commerce by the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Representative Sam Smith.

He also is a 2007 Pennsylvania Leadership Academy Fellow and an alumnus of the American Swiss Foundation’s Young Leaders Conference, Class of 2008. He is the co-leader of the Government Modernization Policy Development Team as part of the Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee and the author of the successful 2010 tax amnesty program that collected over $261 million in 54 days. Since 2010, John has also been invited by Jeb Bush, former governor and founder of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, to participate in his annual National Summits for Education Excellence.

Prior to being elected to the General Assembly, John worked for nine years as a management consultant for the global professional services firms BearingPoint and KPMG LLP, and held a number of elected offices including councilman for Lititz Borough and was a member of the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee.

John is active in the local community, serving as a member of the Lititz Rotary Club and as a volunteer instructor for Junior Achievement. He also is a former board director for the Landis Valley Museums Associates and the Lititz Community Center.

A lifelong resident of Lancaster County, he is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, where he earned a Masters of Governmental Administration degree. He also received a bachelor’s degree with honors in political science from Temple University and is a graduate of the Engalitcheff Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown University and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. John is a 1991 graduate of Warwick High School.

John and his wife, Bobbi, live in Lititz with their son Jack, daughter Brynn, their English Setter, Toby, and Teaghan, an Irish Setter. .