Emory A. Hebard
Emory A. Hebard | |
---|---|
Vermont State Treasurer | |
In office January, 1977 – January 1989 | |
Governor | Richard A. Snelling Madeleine Kunin |
Preceded by | Stella Hackel |
Succeeded by | Paul W. Ruse Jr. |
Personal details | |
Born | Carmel, Maine, U.S. | September 28, 1917
Died | November 1, 1993 Lebanon, New Hampshire, U.S. | (aged 76)
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Irma Mills (1914-1992) (m. 1941) Edith Cameron St. Onge (m. 1993) |
Children | 1 |
Alma mater | Middlebury College |
Profession | Store owner Real estate broker |
Nickname | "Em" |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Coast Guard Reserve |
Years of service | 1943-1972 |
Rank | Lieutenant Commander |
Battles/wars | World War II Korean War |
Emory A. Hebard (September 28, 1917 – November 1, 1993) was an American businessman and politician who served as Vermont State Treasurer.
Early life
[edit]Emory Amos Hebard was born in Carmel, Maine, on September 28, 1917, and raised in Northampton, Massachusetts.[1][2][3] He graduated from Northampton High School in 1934 and Middlebury College in 1938, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[4][5][6]
He lived for a time in New York City, and was employed by the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.[7]
Military service
[edit]During his student years Hebard was an anti-war activist, opposing U.S. intervention in Europe.[8][9]
When the U.S. became involved in World War II, Hebard joined the United States Coast Guard. He remained in the Coast Guard Reserve following the war. Hebard was recalled to active duty for the Korean War and served from 1950 to 1952. Following this active duty tour, he continued with the Coast Guard Reserve, and attained the rank of lieutenant commander.[10][11]
Move to Vermont
[edit]Hebard moved to Vermont in 1947. He owned and operated Emory's Country Store in East Charleston from 1947 to 1950, and also served as East Charleston's Postmaster.[12] From 1952 to 1963 he owned and operated Emory's Country Store in Glover.[13] Hebard later operated a gift shop and an ice bar in Barton, worked as a real estate broker, and was Industrial Development Director for the Vermont Development Commission.[14][15]
He also held local offices, including Town Meeting Moderator, School District Meeting Moderator, and Town Lister.[16]
Vermont House of Representatives
[edit]In 1960 Hebard was a successful Republican candidate for the Vermont House of Representatives. Elected when the House consisted of 246 members elected based on "one town, one representative," Hebard was named Chairman of the Reapportionment Committee by Speaker Franklin S. Billings, Jr. in 1965 when federal court decisions mandating proportional representation meant the creation of state legislative districts and the reduction of the House to 150 members.[17]
Vermont was dominated by Republicans, and the House was controlled by Republicans from small towns, who overwhelmingly opposed reapportionment and the creation of districts because those changes threatened continued Republican and rural control. As the member from Glover, one of Vermont's smallest town at only 683 residents, and as a conservative Republican, Hebard could have been expected to oppose proportional representation. Instead, Billings and Hebard persuaded House members to support it with the argument that if Vermont didn't solve the problem, the federal government and the courts would do it instead.[18]
The reapportionment effort was successful and Hebard ran successfully for a seat in the reapportioned House in the 1965 special election, now a candidate from Glover and four other towns that were combined into a two-member district. He served in the House until 1969.[19]
Hebard's district included Irasburg. The conservatism he displayed in the 1950s and 1960s included approval of the actions of local residents during the 1968 "Irasburg Affair," in which an African American minister was targeted by a campaign to force him out of Vermont. This effort included police harassment as well as an anonymous individual firing gunshots into the minister's home.[20][21][22][23]
Hebard also disapproved of the Vermont-New York Project, an effort by Governor Philip H. Hoff and New York City Mayor John Lindsay to provide African American children from the city with a "country" experience by having them spend summers in Vermont. As Hebard indicated at the time, his motivations in the Irasburg Affair and Vermont-New York Project controversies was not racism, but a desire to blunt Hoff's popularity. Hoff, the first Democrat elected Governor of Vermont since the founding of the Republican Party in the 1850s, advocated progressive policies and was a likely United States Senate candidate, and Hebard hoped to return the governorship to Republican hands and keep both of Vermont's Senate seats Republican.[24][25]
Hebard was Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee from 1967 to 1969. In 1968 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Vermont State Senate.[26][27] He returned to the House after the 1970 elections,[28] and was chairman of the Appropriations Committee from 1973 to 1977. Former governor Madeleine Kunin later wrote that when she served on the Appropriations Committee during his chairmanship, Hebard was a mentor, giving her significant responsibilities despite her status as a member of the minority Democrats, and lobbying House colleagues to name Kunin as chairwoman of the committee after he left the House.[29]
In 1975 Hebard ran unsuccessfully for Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, losing to Timothy J. O'Connor, Jr. O'Connor's victory was remarkable in that it marked the first time a Democrat had won the Speakership since the founding of the Republican Party in the 1850s, and came while Republicans were still the majority party in the House.[30][31]
Vermont State Treasurer
[edit]Hebard moved to Barton in the mid-1970s. When incumbent State Treasurer Stella Hackel decided to run for governor, Hebard ran successfully to succeed her in 1976, using the campaign slogan "Thrift is Still a Virtue," a line which took advantage of his carefully crafted image as a traditional New England, small town fiscal conservative.[32][33]
During his term in office, Hebard was known for his attention to detail. According to longtime House colleague Melvin Mandigo, Hebard was known to drive to Boston to make state payments to the Bond Bank, rather than trust them to the mail.[34]
He served as Treasurer until retiring in 1989. Contemplating retirement in 1987, Hebard contacted Paul W. Ruse Jr., the Town Manager and Director of Finance for the town of Springfield, Vermont, to offer him the position of Deputy State Treasurer. Ruse accepted, even though Hebard and he were from different political parties. In 1988 Hebard announced his retirement and endorsed Ruse as his successor, appearing in television ads to say Ruse was a worthy successor -- "for a Democrat."[35][36]
Death and burial
[edit]Hebard died in Lebanon, New Hampshire, on November 1, 1993, following complications from a heart attack.[37][38] He is buried at Westlook Cemetery in Glover.[39]
Family
[edit]In 1941 Hebard married Irma Mills (1914-1992). They had one daughter, Sammy Maginnis Hebard.[40][41]
In September, 1993 he married Edith Cameron St. Onge, who survived him.[42]
Legacy
[edit]The Vermont State Office Building in Newport is named for him.[43]
References
[edit]- ^ Maine Birth Records, 1621-1922, entry for Emory A. Hebard, retrieved January 17, 2014
- ^ Middlebury College, Yearbook, 1937, page 84
- ^ Vermont Secretary of State, Legislative Directory, 1979, page 196
- ^ Vermont Secretary of State, Vermont Legislative Directory and State Manual, 1985, page 457
- ^ Madeleine May Kunin, Living a Political Life, 2011
- ^ Samuel B. Hand, The Star That Set: The Vermont Republican Party, 1854-1974, page 256
- ^ Edward Hoagland, Compass Points: How I Lived, 2007, page 244
- ^ Middlebury Camous newspaper, Memorial Day to be Commemorated Archived February 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, May 27, 1936
- ^ Youth Committee Against War, Proceedings, National Youth Anti-War Congress, 1940, page 31
- ^ U.S. Government Printing Office, of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Coast Guard Reserve in the Order of Precedence, 1959, page 72
- ^ Paul Anthony Theis, Edmund Lee Henshaw, Who's Who in American Politics, Volume 2, 1991, page 1665
- ^ United States Postal Service, Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971, entry for Emory A. Hebard, retrieved January 17, 2014
- ^ Samuel B. Hand, Anthony Marro, Stephen C. Terry, Philip Hoff: How Red Turned Blue in the Green Mountain State, 2011
- ^ North Adams (Massachusetts) Transcript, Hebard is Quitting Commission, June 6, 1958
- ^ Vermont Supreme Court, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Vermont, 1970, page 280
- ^ Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association, A History of Barton, Vermont, 1998, page 164
- ^ Vermont Folklife Center Radio, Under The Golden Dome: The Stories Behind Vermont's Citizen Legislature, Program 3: Philip Hoff and Reapportionment Archived October 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, 2005
- ^ Christopher Graff Associated Press, Rutland Herald Historic House Debate Recalled Archived November 26, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, May 17, 2005
- ^ Samuel B. Hand, Anthony Marro, Stephen C. Terry, Philip Hoff: How Red Turned Blue in the Green Mountain State, 2011
- ^ Roderick Stackelberg, Memory and History: Recollections of a Historian of Nazism, 1967-1982, 2011, page 21
- ^ Tom Slayton, Vermont Public Radio, Irasburg Affair Remembered, May 2, 2011
- ^ Mark Bushnell, Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus, Complacency Shattered Like Glass Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, September 28, 2008
- ^ United Press International, Bennington Banner, Extra Security Set for Hoff, July 31, 1968
- ^ Samuel B. Hand, The Star That Set: The Vermont Republican Party, 1854-1974, 2003, page 265
- ^ Charles Kershner, United Press International, Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times, Vermont, Negro Population Nil, Has Budding Racial Problem, August 16, 1968
- ^ United Press International, Bennington Banner, State Officials Tour Northeast Kingdom Today, June 4, 1968
- ^ Betsy Samuelson, United Press International, Bennington Banner, Second Davis Message Fails to Change Legislative Minds, January 24, 1969
- ^ United Press International, Bennington Banner, Plan Proposed for State to Take Over High Schools, December 18, 1970
- ^ Madeleine Kunin, The New Feminist Agenda, 2012, pages 176-177
- ^ Dean W. Schott, Associated Press, Hashua (Hew Hampshire) Telegraph, Rep. Hebard Visits Solons in House Leadership Bid, November 21, 1974
- ^ United Press International, Bridgeport (Connecticut) Telegram, Democrats Elect Speaker in Vermont, January 9, 1975
- ^ Rod Clarke, United Press International, Bennington Banner, Snelling, Stafford, Jeffords, Diamond and Guest Victorious, November 3, 1976
- ^ Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association, A History of Barton, Vermont, 1998, page 164
- ^ Barton Chronicle, Former State Treasurer Em Hebard Dies at 76, November 3, 1993
- ^ Patrick M. Fitzgibbons, The Bond Buyer, Treasurer helps Vermont's economy dig out from the recession, March 29, 1993
- ^ Hebard, Emory (October 18, 1988). "Ruse good man 'for a Democrat'". Letters to the Editor. St. Albans Messenger. St. Albans, VT. p. 4.
- ^ U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-Current, entry for Emory A. Hebard, retrieved January 17, 2014
- ^ U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010, entry for Emory Hebard, retrieved January 17, 2014
- ^ Barton Chronicle, Former State Treasurer Em Hebard Dies at 76, November 3, 1993
- ^ University of Vermont, Barton Human Capital: Emory A. Hebard Archived February 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved January 17, 2014
- ^ Vermont, Marriage Records, 1909-2008, 1956 entry for Sammy Maginnis Hebard and Robert Alexander hedger, retrieved January 17, 2014
- ^ Vermont Marriage Index, 1981-1984 and 1989-2001, entry for Emory A. Hebard and Edith Cameron St. Onge, retrieved January 17, 2014
- ^ The Vermont Statutes Online, Title 29: Public Property and Supplies, Chapter 17: Names of State Facilities, 2013
- 1917 births
- 1993 deaths
- People from Penobscot County, Maine
- Politicians from Northampton, Massachusetts
- People from Barton, Vermont
- Middlebury College alumni
- Military personnel from Maine
- American anti-war activists
- United States Coast Guard officers
- United States Coast Guard personnel of World War II
- American military personnel of the Korean War
- American real estate brokers
- Republican Party members of the Vermont House of Representatives
- State treasurers of Vermont
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- Military personnel from Massachusetts
- 20th-century members of the Vermont General Assembly