Snow, Roger Vinton, Jr. oral history interview

Authors

Don Nicoll
Mike Richard

Document Type

Oral History

Publication Date

6-23-1999

Interview Number

MOH 111

Abstract

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.

Scope and Content Note

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.

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.

Recommended Citation

Nicoll, Don and Richard, Mike, "Snow, Roger Vinton, Jr. oral history interview" (1999). Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Collection. 369.
https://scarab.bates.edu/muskie_oh/369