American Legislative Leaders in the Northeast, 1911-1994

349 Pages·2000·4.097 MB·English

by  James Roger Sharp, Nancy Weatherly Sharp, Kevin G. Atwater, Jon L. Wakelyn, Charles F. Ritter

American Legislative
Leaders in the
Northeast, 1911–1994
James Roger Sharp
Nancy Weatherly Sharp
Editors
GREENWOOD PRESS
American Legislative Leaders
in the Northeast, 1911–1994

American Legislative
Leaders in the
Northeast, 1911–1994
James Roger Sharp and
Nancy Weatherly Sharp, Editors
Kevin G. Atwater and Gina Petonito, Assistant Editors
Charles F. Ritter and Jon L. Wakelyn, Advisory Editors
GREENWOODPRESS
Westport,Connecticut • London
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
AmericanlegislativeleadersintheNortheast,1911–1994 / JamesRoger
SharpandNancyWeatherlySharp,editors : KevinG.AtwaterandGina
Petonito,assistanteditors.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0–313–30215–4(alk.paper)
1. Legislators—NortheasternStatesBiographyDictionaries.
2. Legislators—UnitedStates—StatesBiographyDictionaries.
3. Legislativebodies—NortheasternStates—Leadership.
4. NortheasternStatesBiographyDictionaries. I. Sharp,James
Roger,1936– . II. Sharp,NancyWeatherly.
F106.A5115 2000
328.736'092'274—dc21
[B] 99–16144
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:1)2000byJamesRogerSharp,NancyWeatherlySharp,CharlesF.Ritter,
andJonL.Wakelyn
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe
expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:99–16144
ISBN:0–313–30215–4
Firstpublishedin2000
GreenwoodPress,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
www.greenwood.com
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe
PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational
InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Tables vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
Biographical Dictionary 44
Bibliography 233
APPENDIX 1 Political Party and Home County 241
APPENDIX 2 Years in Speakership and House 249
APPENDIX 3 Legislative Pathways 257
APPENDIX 4 Gender, Racial Background, Birth, and Death 265
APPENDIX 5 Education 273
APPENDIX 6 Religious, Military, and Marital Background 281
APPENDIX 7 Occupations 289
APPENDIX 8 Voluntary Organizations 297
APPENDIX 9 Public Offices before Speakership 305
APPENDIX 10 Public Offices after Speakership 313
Index 321
About the Editors and Contributors 331

TABLES
1 Party Affiliation of Speakers 3
2 Characteristics of Speakers by Year 13
3 Religious Affiliation of Speakers 16
4 Highest Level of Education of Speakers by Region 17
5 Primary Occupation of Speakers before Speakership 18
6 Highest U.S. Military Rank of Speakers 20
7 Marital Status of Speakers by Region 21
8 Number of Public Offices Held by Speakers before Speakership 22
9 Number of Years Speakers Served in House before Speakership 26
10 Number of Years Speakers Served as Speaker 29
11 Speakers’ Reasons for Leaving House 35
12 Speakers’ Offices after Speakership by Region 37

PREFACE
This book is part of a four-volume project to provide a biographical dictionary
of state house speakers in each region of the United States from 1911 to 1994.
In process for more than a decade, the project turned outto be muchlargerand
moredifficultthan wehadanticipatedwhenaskedtoundertakeitbytheeditors
at Greenwood Press. It represented the talents and hard work ofa largenumber
of researchers, librarians, and archivists throughout the country as well as as-
sistants and student workers at Syracuse University. Most of the latter subse-
quentlylefttheuniversityforvariousprofessionalfields,butsomeshowedtheir
commitment to the project by continuing to be involved.
The challenge that the project presented became obvious early on when we
encountered difficulty in getting the names of all the speakers in all the states.
For about half of the states, this was perfunctory. We wrote to whom we saw
astheappropriateofficial,andalistwasforthcoming.Elsewhere,simplyputting
together correctly spelled names and speakership dates constituted a major
achievement. An even more difficult challenge was determining political party
affiliations. In the end we identified a total of 1,472 speakers.
Once we had the names, dates, and parties of the speakers, our goal was to
recruitoutstandingscholarsofstatehistoryandpoliticstowritebiographiesand
fill out questionnaires for each individual. There were many disappointments
alongtheway,butintheendweenlistedadedicatedgroupofcontributorsfrom
every state in the Union. The extent to which they went to track down infor-
mation about the speakers often amazed us. For instance, onecontributorwrote
of finding crucial information in an old graveyard.
The introductions to these volumes were based on literature about state leg-
islative politics as well as the information we collected. They were drafted by
James Roger Sharp, professor of history at Syracuse University, and based on
suggestionsandrevisionsofferedbycoeditorNancyWeatherlySharp,professor
of newspaper journalism and assistant dean for graduate professional studiesat
the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse. Other revi-
sions were supplied by the volumes’ assistant editors, Gina Petonito andKevin