Emory A. Hebard

Emory A. Hebard (September 28, 1917 – November 1, 1993) was a Vermont businessman and politician who served as Vermont State Treasurer.

Emory A. Hebard
Vermont State Treasurer
In office
January, 1977 – January, 1989
GovernorRichard A. Snelling
Madeleine M. Kunin
Preceded byStella Hackel
Succeeded byPaul W. Ruse Jr.
Personal details
Born(1917-09-28)September 28, 1917
Carmel, Maine
DiedNovember 1, 1993(1993-11-01) (aged 76)
Lebanon, New Hampshire
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Irma Mills (1914-1992) (m. 1941)
Edith Cameron St. Onge (m. 1993)
ChildrenSammy (daughter)
Alma materMiddlebury College
ProfessionStore owner
Real estate broker
Nickname(s)"Em"

Early life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Vermont State Office Building in Newport is named for him.[43]

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References
  1. Maine Birth Records, 1621-1922, entry for Emory A. Hebard, retrieved January 17, 2014
  2. Middlebury College, Yearbook, 1937, page 84
  3. Vermont Secretary of State, Legislative Directory, 1979, page 196
  4. Vermont Secretary of State, Vermont Legislative Directory and State Manual, 1985, page 457
  5. Madeleine May Kunin, Living a Political Life, 2011
  6. Samuel B. Hand, The Star That Set: The Vermont Republican Party, 1854-1974, page 256
  7. Edward Hoagland, Compass Points: How I Lived, 2007, page 244
  8. Middlebury Camous newspaper, Memorial Day to be Commemorated Archived February 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, May 27, 1936
  9. Youth Committee Against War, Proceedings, National Youth Anti-War Congress, 1940, page 31
  10. 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
  11. Paul Anthony Theis, Edmund Lee Henshaw, Who's Who in American Politics, Volume 2, 1991, page 1665
  12. United States Postal Service, Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971, entry for Emory A. Hebard, retrieved January 17, 2014
  13. Samuel B. Hand, Anthony Marro, Stephen C. Terry, Philip Hoff: How Red Turned Blue in the Green Mountain State, 2011
  14. North Adams (Massachusetts) Transcript, Hebard is Quitting Commission, June 6, 1958
  15. Vermont Supreme Court, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Vermont, 1970, page 280
  16. Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association, A History of Barton, Vermont, 1998, page 164
  17. 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
  18. Christopher Graff Associated Press, Rutland Herald Historic House Debate Recalled, May 17, 2005
  19. Samuel B. Hand, Anthony Marro, Stephen C. Terry, Philip Hoff: How Red Turned Blue in the Green Mountain State, 2011
  20. Roderick Stackelberg, Memory and History: Recollections of a Historian of Nazism, 1967-1982, 2011, page 21
  21. Tom Slayton, Vermont Public Radio, Irasburg Affair Remembered, May 2, 2011
  22. Mark Bushnell, Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus, Complacency Shattered Like Glass, September 28, 2008
  23. United Press International, Bennington Banner, Extra Security Set for Hoff, July 31, 1968
  24. Samuel B. Hand, The Star That Set: The Vermont Republican Party, 1854-1974, 2003, page 265
  25. Charles Kershner, United Press International, Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times, Vermont, Negro Population Nil, Has Budding Racial Problem, August 16, 1968
  26. United Press International, Bennington Banner, State Officials Tour Northeast Kingdom Today, June 4, 1968
  27. Betsy Samuelson, United Press International, Bennington Banner, Second Davis Message Fails to Change Legislative Minds, January 24, 1969
  28. United Press International, Bennington Banner, Plan Proposed for State to Take Over High Schools, December 18, 1970
  29. Madeleine Kunin, The New Feminist Agenda, 2012, pages 176-177
  30. Dean W. Schott, Associated Press, Hashua (Hew Hampshire) Telegraph, Rep. Hebard Visits Solons in House Leadership Bid, November 21, 1974
  31. United Press International, Bridgeport (Connecticut) Telegram, Democrats Elect Speaker in Vermont, January 9, 1975
  32. Rod Clarke, United Press International, Bennington Banner, Snelling, Stafford, Jeffords, Diamond and Guest Victorious, November 3, 1976
  33. Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association, A History of Barton, Vermont, 1998, page 164
  34. Barton Chronicle, Former State Treasurer Em Hebard Dies at 76, November 3, 1993
  35. Patrick M. Fitzgibbons, The Bond Buyer, Treasurer helps Vermont's economy dig out from the recession, March 29, 1993
  36. Hebard, Emory (October 18, 1988). "Ruse good man 'for a Democrat'". Letters to the Editor. St. Albans Messenger. St. Albans, VT. p. 4.
  37. U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-Current, entry for Emory A. Hebard, retrieved January 17, 2014
  38. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010, entry for Emory Hebard, retrieved January 17, 2014
  39. Barton Chronicle, Former State Treasurer Em Hebard Dies at 76, November 3, 1993
  40. University of Vermont, Barton Human Capital: Emory A. Hebard Archived February 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved January 17, 2014
  41. Vermont, Marriage Records, 1909-2008, 1956 entry for Sammy Maginnis Hebard and Robert Alexander hedger, retrieved January 17, 2014
  42. Vermont Marriage Index, 1981-1984 and 1989-2001, entry for Emory A. Hebard and Edith Cameron St. Onge, retrieved January 17, 2014
  43. The Vermont Statutes Online, Title 29: Public Property and Supplies, Chapter 17: Names of State Facilities, 2013
Political offices
Preceded by
Stella Hackel		 Vermont State Treasurer
1977–1989		 Succeeded by
Paul W. Ruse Jr.
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