Richard A. Snelling

Richard Arkwright Snelling (February 18, 1927 – August 13, 1991) was the 76th and 78th Governor of Vermont from 1977 to 1985 and from January 10, 1991 until his death from heart failure seven months later.

Biography
The son of chemist Walter O. Snelling, Snelling was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1945, and served at the end of World War II and in the post-war occupation of Germany as an investigator and information bulletin editor. He attained the rank of technician fifth grade and was discharged in 1946. On June 14, 1947, he married Barbara T. Weil, and they had four children. He attended the University of Havana and Lehigh University, and received his bachelor's degree in government and economics from Harvard University in 1948.

Career
A member of the Republican Party, Snelling served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1959 to 1960, and again from 1973 to 1977, and he held the post of majority leader in his final term. He was a delegate to Republican National Convention from Vermont, 1960, 1968, 1980, and chair of Chittenden County Republican Party from 1963 to 1966. He was a member of Vermont Republican State Executive Committee from 1963 to 1966, and a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Vermont in 1964.

Snelling founded Shelburne Industries, Inc., and chaired several companies. His business affiliations include the Young Presidents' Association, the Chief Executives Organization, and the World Business Council. He was director of Ski Industries of America and Associated Industries of Vermont.

Snelling was first elected governor in 1976 and was later re-elected to three additional consecutive terms – in 1978, 1980, and 1982 – but left office in January 1985, choosing not to run in 1984. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1986 but lost to incumbent Patrick Leahy in a landslide. In 1990 Snelling was once again elected governor, becoming the first Vermont governor to win five mandates.

Death and legacy
Snelling died of a heart attack seven months after his final inauguration, and Lieutenant Governor Howard Dean, a Democrat, was sworn in as governor. Snelling is interred at Shelburne Village Cemetery, Shelburne, Vermont.

The Snelling Center for Government at the University of Vermont was named in honor of Richard and Barbara Snelling.

Family
Governor Snelling's wife, Barbara Snelling (née Weil), served as Lieutenant Governor and a member of the Vermont State Senate.

His daughter Diane B. Snelling served in the Vermont Senate after being appointed to succeed her mother in 2002. She resigned in 2016 to accept appointment as head of the Vermont Natural Resources Board.

Snelling's son Mark was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2010 Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor.