Robert Stafford

From the founding of the party in the 1850s, Republicans in Vermont had made use of the Mountain Rule, which called for candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to alternate between the east and west sides of the Green Mountains, and for governors to serve only two years in office.

U.S. Senators were also allocated according to the Mountain Rule, with one from the east and one from the west.

Under this system, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor were chosen by the party years in advance, and served in leadership roles in the Vermont General Assembly, including Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives and President of the Vermont Senate.

Stafford is one of Vermont's few governors who did not serve in the legislature.

Bert Stafford was a 1901 graduate of Middlebury College who practiced law in Rutland, and was President of the Rutland County National Bank.

Robert Theodore Stafford (August 8, 1913 – December 23, 2006) was an American politician from Vermont.

He served as Rutland County's State's Attorney, and was mayor from 1915 to 1917, President of the Vermont Bar Association in 1930, and Chairman of the Vermont Board of Education.

Stafford attended the schools of Rutland and was a 1931 graduate of Rutland High School.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Middlebury College in 1935.

While there, he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

He briefly attended the University of Michigan Law School before earning his LL.B. from the Boston University School of Law in 1938.

Upon completing law school, Stafford was admitted to the bar and practiced law with the Rutland firm of Stafford, Abatiell, and Stafford.

He became active in politics as a Republican and served as Rutland's grand juror (prosecutor in the municipal court) from 1938 to 1942.

In 1942, Stafford joined the United States Navy Reserve for World War II and was commissioned as an ensign.

Assigned to the Intelligence branch, he completed his initial training at Dartmouth College and at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

He then carried out intelligence officer postings at the Navy Department in Washington, D.C., and at Navy bases on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Stafford later requested sea duty and served as senior watch officer aboard USS West Point, the Navy's largest troop transport ship.

During his service aboard West Point, the ship made numerous voyages across the Atlantic to Europe and Africa.

Stafford advanced to lieutenant commander during the war, and at its end in 1945 he was the ship's chief transportation officer.

He returned to Rutland in February 1946 while continuing to serve in the Navy Reserve.

Stafford served as Rutland County's State's Attorney from 1947 to 1951.

In addition, he practiced law in a new firm, Stafford and LaBrake.

By the late 1950s, the Democratic Party was becoming increasingly competitive in Vermont, and in the 1958 election, Stafford won the governorship over Bernard J. Leddy with only 50.3% of the vote.

Stafford's governorship was notable for initiatives to streamline state government, including creation of the Agency of Administration.

In addition, the state invested in infrastructure including roads and bridges to spur economic growth, and enacted scholarships for Vermont students who attended state colleges.

In October 1951, Stafford returned to active duty during the Korean War era.

He was assigned as gunnery officer aboard USS Mission Bay, a Reserve training ship berthed in Bayonne, New Jersey, and served until February 1953.

Following his Korean War-era deployment, he entered Vermont statewide politics, serving as deputy state attorney general for the state from 1953 to 1955.

In 1954, he was elected Vermont Attorney General, and he served from 1955 to 1957.

In 1956, he was elected lieutenant governor.

In 1958, Stafford was elected governor.

His ascent to the lieutenant governorship and governorship was unusual in that he did not follow the path of most Vermont Republicans.

In 1960, Stafford was the Republican nominee for Vermont's lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, supported by all factions of his party because he was regarded as the strongest challenger to Democrat William H. Meyer, who had broken the Republican Party's 100 year hold on statewide offices by winning election to Congress in 1958.

Stafford won, and was subsequently reelected four times, serving in the House from January 3, 1961, to September 16, 1971.

Stafford voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In his lengthy political career, he served as the 71st governor of Vermont, a United States representative, and a U.S. Senator.

A Republican, Stafford was generally considered a liberal, or "Rockefeller Republican".

He remained in the Navy Reserve after his second deployment and retired at the rank of captain in March 1971.

Stafford is best remembered for his staunch environmentalism, his work on higher education, and his support, as an elder statesman, for the 2000 Vermont law legalizing civil unions for gay couples.

Stafford was born in Rutland, Vermont, to Bert Linus Stafford and Mabel R. (Stratton) Stafford.