Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Collection

Authors

Erik Remsen

Document Type

Oral History

Publication Date

5-19-2001

Interview Number

MOH 271

Abstract

Damon Stetson was born August 1, 1915 in Hanover, Massachusetts. He attended Bates College where he took part in cross-country track and student reporting. He was an English major with the senior honors thesis topic: Charles Dickens: a social reformer. He graduated with honors in the class of 1936. He attended Columbia, receiving a master’s of science degree, and then began work with the Newark Evening News. He served in the Navy (intelligence) during World War II, and then worked for the New York Times, eventually in labor reporting. He headed the Detroit bureau of the Times in 1955. Erik Remsen, the interviewer, was a Bates College student and grandson of Damon.

Scope and Content Note

Interview includes discussions of: Bates College years; Cornell Law School; Navy; Waterville, Maine law practice; 1954 Maine gubernatorial campaign (Stetson wrote an article for the New York Times); 1968 vice presidential campaign (New York Times campaign trip); 1969-1972 presidential campaign (Manchester Union Leader incident); Colby College; labor history in the United States; Progressive Party Convention, 1948; state and local Michigan politics; Ohio politics; Birch Bayh during his Indiana Senate campaign; Kennedy’s 1960 campaign in the Midwest; and desegregation of schools in the South in the mid-1950s.

Use Restrictions

Copyright Bates College. This transcript is provided for individual Research Purposes Only; for all other uses, including publication, reproduction and quotation beyond fair use, permission must be obtained in writing from: The Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, Bates College, 70 Campus Avenue, Lewiston, Maine 04240-6018.

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