Snow, Roger Vinton, Jr. oral history interview, 1999

Item

Identifier: MOH 111

Staff Only

Snow, Roger Vinton, Jr. oral history interview

Scope and Contents

Interview includes discussions of: the Office of Price Stabilization; the 1954 Maine gubernatorial campaign (Snow moderated a TV interview/debate between Muskie and Cross); the 1964 Senate campaign; the 1969-1972 Presidential campaign; attending school with Ed Gignoux, Louis Porteous, Horace Thomas (son of Widgery Thomas, president of Canal Bank), and Arthur Bosworth; New England Shipbuilding; covering the 1948 Bar Harbor fires with Brooks Hamilton and meeting up with Stewart Symington and Margaret Chase Smith; Roger Snow, Sr., who wrote the official state of Maine song; the Teamsters endorsomg Snow for Senate; Charlie Payson and his wife; Sinclair Act regarding town contributions to public education; Henry Benoit; Ralph Owen Brewster; Louis Jalbert ; Snow being the only Democrat elected to state office from Falmouth since 1914; sponsoring eradication of big box voting with Rodney Ross; and Parker Hoy.

Dates

1999

Access Restrictions

Some interviews may be restricted pending approval of the interviewee. See the Archives staff for additional information.

Most interviews are available online (audio and transcripts) and can be accessed by clicking the highlighted link at each interviewee webpage.

Biographical / Historical

Roger Vinton Snow, Jr. was born in Portland, Maine on June 10, 1918. His father was a corporate and probate lawyer and moderator of Falmouth town meetings. Alida, his mother, was chairman of the Republican town committee. Roger attended Waynflete until the 4th grade, and then Portland Country Day School, Lincoln Junior H. S., Deering H. S., and Deerfield Academy. At Williams College his major was French, with a minor in Spanish, graduating in the class of 1940. During World War II he worked for W. R. Grace in New York, a New England Shipbuilding Corporation. After the war, he worked for a bottle modification plant in Cheyenne, WY, Canal Bank, Kennebec Journal and then the Portland Press Herald for seven years. He organized KJ for American Newspaper Guild and was vice president of the union. He later became publisher of the Westbrook American. He changed his political party enrollment from Republican to Democrat the day Kennedy was assassinated. He ran for Maine Senate and won in 1964, where he was Chair of the Education Committee. He was also a member of the Committee on Welfare.