Beliveau, Severin oral history interview, 1999

File

Identifier: MOH 149

Staff Only

Beliveau, Severin oral history interview

Scope and Contents

Interview includes discussions of: Muskie family in Rumford; The Beliveau family and Rumford; Muskie’s law practice; Albert Beliveau, Sr; Maine Supreme Court appointment; Bill McCarthy; Louis Jalbert; Democratic Party organization in the 1950s-1960s; changing Maine politics; impact of Independents on Maine political parties; Muskie’s temper; Franco-American ethnicity in Maine; 1986 gubernatorial election; Margaret Beliveau; and Muskie’s legacy.

Dates

1999

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Biographical / Historical

Severin M. Beliveau was born and raised in Rumford, Maine to Margaret (McCarthy) and Albert Beliveau, Sr. He grew up in an activist Democrat family in the 1950s and 1960s, and witnessed the rise of the Democratic Party in Maine. Mr. Beliveau attended Georgetown University, and graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1963, and practiced for a brief time in Rumford with his father and his brother, Albert Beliveau, Jr. His Maine political experience includes chairmanship of the Maine Democratic Party in the late 1960s, Democratic National Committee service, as well as state legislative experience. He also ran for governor in 1986, losing to Jim Tierney in the Democratic primary. He is married to Cynthia Murray Beliveau and they have four boys. He is currently a partner in the Maine law firm Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios & Haley, LLC and is an influential lobbyist. He has served in such capacities as the president of the American Association of the Forum Francophone des Affaires, and the French Consular Agent for the State of Maine.