Quick Facts
Biography
Richard Walker Mallary (February 21, 1929 – September 27, 2011) was a U.S. Representative from Vermont.
Biography
Mallary was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on February 21, 1929. He was educated at Bradford Academy in Bradford, Vermont, and received an A.B. degree from Dartmouth College in 1949.
Mallary operated a dairy farm in Fairlee, Vermont from 1950 to 1970, where he was subsequently elected chairman of the Fairlee Board of Selectmen, serving from 1951 to 1953. He served as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969, serving as chairman of the appropriations committee and holding the position of Speaker from 1965 to 1969. In the House Mallary was recognized as one of the "Young Turks," the group of legislators who crossed party lines to advocate for progressive policies and the modernizing of Vermont's state government.
He was Trustee and treasurer of Vermont State Colleges from 1962 to 1965. Mallary served as chairman of the Vermont Legislative Council from 1965 to 1967, and as a delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention which nominated Richard M. Nixon for President. He served as vice chairman of the Vermont Governor's Committee on Administrative Coordination in 1969.
He was a member of the Vermont State Senate from 1969 to 1971. Mallary served as Vermont Secretary of Administration in 1971, in the cabinet of Governor Deane C. Davis.
Mallary was elected as a Republican to the Ninety-second Congress, filling the vacancy caused when Robert T. Stafford resigned to accept appointment to the United States Senate. Mallary was reelected to the Ninety-third Congress, and served from January 7, 1972 to January 3, 1975. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1974, narrowly losing to Patrick Leahy.
Mallary was Vice President of the Farm Credit Bank in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1975 to 1977. He was Vermont's Secretary of Administration again from 1977 to 1980, in the first administration of Governor Richard A. Snelling. He served as vice president of the Central Vermont Public Service Corp. from 1980 to 1983, chairman of the board of a heating company from 1984 to 1985, and president of the Vermont Electric Power Company from 1986 to 1994.
He later resided in Brookfield, Vermont. From 1999 to 2001 Mallary served again in the Vermont House of Representatives. He voted for Vermont's Civil Unions law in 2000 even though he represented a conservative district which opposed the legislation. That fall he ran for reelection unsuccessfully as an independent. He ran again unsuccessfully in 2002.
In 2003 Mallary served as Vermont's tax commissioner, an appointed sub-cabinet position, in the administration of Republican Governor Jim Douglas.
In retirement Mallary continued to serve in local office including chairman of the town planning commission and town meeting moderator. He was also an advocate of "death with dignity" legislation. In his later years he was ill with incurable prostate cancer. He died in Brookfield on September 27, 2011. In 2012 members of his family made public the fact that Mallary had taken his life as a result of his illness.
Family
Mallary's first wife was Mary Harper Coxe. They had four children—Richard, Anne, Elizabeth and Sarah. They divorced in 1974, and in 1979 he married Jeannie (Loud) Brownell, with whom he had three stepchildren—Jonathan, Lydia and Hayden.
His nephew Peter Mallary served in the Vermont House and as chairman of the Vermont Democratic Party.
Electoral history
- 1972 Special election for U.S. House (Vermont At-large) (January 7, 1972)
- Richard W. Mallary (R), 55.8%
- J. William O'Brien (D), 37.6%
- Doris Lake (Liberty Union), 4.7%
- Anthony N. Doria (Independent), 1.9%
- 1972 Race for U.S. House (Vermont At-large)
- Richard W. Mallary (R), 65.0%
- William H. Meyer (D), 34.97%
- Blank or scattered, .03%
- 1974 Race for U.S. Senate
- Patrick Leahy (D), 49.5%
- Richard W. Mallary (R), 46.4%
