Showing 1 - 10 of 20 Items
Date: 2008-05-01
Creator: Mary E McAleney
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Mary Elizabeth McAleney was born on March 18, 1945, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her mother, Helen Irene (Twombly) McAleney, was a Works Progress Administration worker, and her father, William McAleney, was a U.S. Customs officer. Mary came from a strongly Democratic Maine family and was politically active from a young age. She was sent from her home near Vanceboro, Maine, to St. Joseph’s boarding school in South Portland, and from there she went to Merrimac College. After her graduation, she taught high school in Maine, first at St. Joseph’s and then at Catherine McAuley High School. After eight years of teaching, she went into political work. She quickly rose through the ranks during Senator Muskie’s ‘76 campaign and worked for state Senator Jim Tierney. She served in George Mitchell’s U.S. Senate office for ten years (1984-1994), focusing on Maine issues.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: George Mitchell’s dedication to and impact on Maine as senator and majority leader; opportunities for young people within Mitchell’s Senate office; health care: spousal impoverishment legislation; Talmadge Plantation; Mitchell Scholarship program/Mitchell Institute; sending Maine bottled water to the Senate; achieving balance between Maine and national politics; Mitchell’s understanding of human nature; Martha Pope; relationship between Pope and Mitchell; Loring Air Force Base and its closure; Paul Haines; Bob Corolla; McAleney’s introduction to the Mitchell staff and her job definition; Gayle Cory and her “wits and know-how”; Mitchell’s Senate Pioneer Scholarship; Mitchell’s 1982 campaign; and driving stories.
Date: 2010-01-21
Creator: Ellyn 'Lyn' C Ballou
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Ellyn “Lyn” Clemmer Ballou was born in Patterson, New Jersey, on December 8, 1944, to Hazel Hendrickson and John Gerhard Clemmer, Jr. Her father worked for the Philadelphia Electric Company and her mother was a homemaker. Lyn attended Middlebury College, studying languages. She and her husband moved to Maine so he could go to the University of Maine School of Law. She worked at the law firm Pierce Atwood while he attended school, and she worked for Joe Brennan in the District Attorney’s Office, where she met George Mitchell. She later earned her law degree, clerked for Sidney Wernick, and practiced law for several years. At the time of this interview she was teaching French in Topsham, Maine.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Ballou’s family background and the Quaker tradition; her interests and inspirations in high school; Middlebury; time abroad in France; meeting and marrying her husband, Peter; working at Pierce Atwood; Cumberland County District Attorney’s office; Joe Brennan; Arthur Stilphen; going back to law school; female lawyers; Murray, Plumb & Murray; her transition to teaching French; and George Mitchell scholars and the Mitchell Institute.
Date: 2008-05-07
Creator: Barbara M Trafton
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Barbara (McKnight) Trafton was born May 22, 1949, in Rumford, Maine. She was graduated from Wellesley College with the class of 1971, then attended the University of Southern Maine and earned an M.Ed., and later went to Northeastern for an M.B.A. She has served in the Maine state House and state Senate for two terms and has been a member of the following committees: Joint Committee, Energy Health and Institutional Services in the House; Joint Committees in the Senate: Judiciary and Public Utilities. She served as the Maine Democratic National Committeewoman, was spokesperson for Maine Turnpike widening in 1991, and is on the Board of the Maine Audubon Society, chairman of the Legislative Policy Committee, the Board of Trustees of the Maine Maritime Academy, and the Review Committee for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). She served on the Board of the Mitchell Institute for several years. She has been deeply involved in Maine politics for decades, hosting many candidate events and serving as one of four campaign co-chairs in George Mitchell’s 1982 U.S. Senate campaign.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: meeting and first impressions of George Mitchell; 1974 gubernatorial campaign; Marty Engstrom story; 1982 U.S. Senate campaign strategy and four campaign chairs; Edmund Muskie; Dave Emery; convention to elect Maine Democratic Committeeperson; stumping for Chip Bull with Edward Kennedy; lollipop story and Sam Trafton; formation of the Mitchell Institute and allocation of scholarships; benefit of the Mitchell Institute’s study on reaching secondary education; and Mitchell’s emphasis on the value of education.
Date: 2008-07-21
Creator: Michael 'Mike' M Hastings, Anita Jensen, Estelle Lavoie, Mary E McAleney
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Michael M. Hastings, a native of Morrill, Maine, graduated from Tilton School (NH) in 1968 and Bowdoin College in 1972. Following a year of graduate study in Public & International Affairs at George Washington University, he worked for seven years as a foreign and defense policy aide to Senator William S. Cohen (1973-1980) and for four years for Senator George J. Mitchell (1980-1984). In October, 1984, he joined the international staff of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and moved to Africa. Over a span of eight years, he worked as a CRS development administrator in Kenya, Tanzania, Togo and The Gambia. During the same period, he assisted in the provision of emergency food for people displaced by civil wars in the Southern Sudan and Liberia. In 1992, he returned to Maine to direct a “center for excellence,” focusing on aquaculture and economic development. Since 2004, he has worked for the University of Maine as its Director of Research and Sponsored Programs. Between 1992 and 2008, he also served on several civic boards and institutions including the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, The Maine Oil Spill Advisory Committee (which he chaired), the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission, the Down East Institute, and the Maine Sea Grant Policy Advisory Committee. Between 1996 and 2001 he was elected three times to be a member of the Town Council of Hampden, ME, where he resides with his wife, a middle school teacher. Anita Holst-Jensen was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), East Germany, on March 16, 1945, to Rasma Rasmanis and Arvids Lusis. Her mother emigrated from Latvia in September of 1944, and Jensen was born in a displaced persons camp, where she lived until she was four years old. Her family eventually emigrated to Australia in 1949, settling in Victoria. Jensen received all of her schooling in Australia and went to university in Melbourne. She married Henning Holst-Jensen, and in 1966 they moved to Perth. When immigration into the United States became possible in 1968, they relocated to the Washington, D.C. area, and Jensen took a job with Investors Overseas Services, later Equity Funding. In 1970, she went to work in Senator Ed Muskie’s office, where she continued until he became secretary of state. She transitioned to George Mitchell’s staff when he was appointed to Muskie’s vacated Senate seat and remained for his fourteen years of Senate service, becoming increasingly involved with speech writing and research. Estelle Lavoie was born in Lewiston, Maine, on November 23, 1949, and grew up there, the youngest of three children. Her father worked as a building contractor until his death in 1964, after which her mother worked part-time as a bank teller. She attended Lewiston public schools and was graduated from Bates College (class of 1971), spending her junior year studying in Switzerland. At the end of 1972, she went to work for Governor Ken Curtis. By September of 1973, she had been hired as part of Senator Ed Muskie’s staff, working first as a caseworker and eventually as his legislative assistant. She attended law school at American University from 1978 to 1981 and transitioned to Senator Mitchell’s staff when he assumed Muskie’s Senate seat. She left Mitchell’s staff in the fall of 1983 and joined the law firm of Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios the following June. Her practice has evolved from health law to other political practice issues. She served on the Democratic State Committee from 1986 to 1990 and was a delegate to the 1988 National Convention. Mary Elizabeth McAleney was born on March 18, 1945, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her mother, Helen Irene (Twombly) McAleney, was a Works Progress Administration worker, and her father, William McAleney, was a U.S. Customs officer. Mary came from a strongly Democratic Maine family and was politically active from a young age. She was sent from her home near Vanceboro, Maine, to St. Joseph’s boarding school in South Portland, and from there she went to Merrimac College. After her graduation, she taught high school in Maine, first at St. Joseph’s and then at Catherine McAuley High School. After eight years of teaching, she went into political work. She quickly rose through the ranks during Senator Muskie’s ‘76 campaign and worked for state Senator Jim Tierney. She served in George Mitchell’s U.S. Senate office for ten years (1984-1994), focusing on Maine issues.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: how Mary McAleney became Mitchell’s scheduler; the transition from Muskie to Mitchell; how Mitchell’s briefcase would be searched entering the office because initially no one knew who he was; the Elizabeth Taylor story; the cow joke; the 1982 U.S. Senate campaign; anecdotes about when Mitchell accidentally sat in a canoe backwards and when David Emery’s float sank in the Kennebec River; the relationship between Cohen and Mitchell; Mitchell’s gaining the support of one of Estelle Lavoie’s friends because he knew the name spelling; Mitchell’s work ethic; Mitchell’s complimenting Byrd on his history of the Senate; Mitchell eye glasses and the striped belt; visiting Talmadge Plantation after Mitchell’s reelection in 1988; Mitchell’s ability to learn and adapt; Anita Jensen’s experience driving Mitchell to work; Mitchell’s lifestyle in D.C.; Sally Mitchell’s decision to stay in Maine and not become involved in politics; the women’s restroom situation in the Capitol; the machine-gun ban and how Feinstein did not want to come to the Senate floor the day after it passed; Mitchell’s process for examining different points of view; an anecdote about Mitchell’s changing his mind and explaining it to the press; Jensen’s lively discussions with Mitchell; the Rehnquist nomination; the role of the staff in Mitchell’s office; Gayle Cory and her influence in the office and with Mitchell; Buzz Fitzgerald; the dynamics of the Mitchell Senate office and the office organization’s lack of hierarchy; the longevity of the staff; Anita Jensen’s role as the speechwriter; writing updates about China; Larry Benoit’s and David Lemoine’s traveling around Maine to update the voter lists; Larry Benoit; Mitchell’s making sure that there were Mainers working for him; the interns; and the Mitchell Institute.
Date: 2009-09-24
Creator: Najeeb 'Naj' S Lotfey
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Najeeb S. Lotfey was born in July, 1942, in Portland, Maine, to Elias and Lillian Lotfey, both from Lebanon. He attended the Northeastern School of Accounting in Portland, Maine, served in the Army for two years, and later joined MacDonald Page where he became a managing partner and stayed for more than thirty years. He has served many of Senator Mitchell’s financial management needs over the years. Former Governor Joe Brennan appointed him to the Finance Authority of Maine.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; Portland, Maine community; the Depression era; career with MacDonald Page and George Mitchell as a client; keeping in touch with the Mitchells regularly; Joe Brennan; description of Joe Angelone and his political interests and pizza shops; Lebanese food; and George Mitchell’s qualities.
Date: 2008-10-07
Creator: Sanford 'Sonny' Miller
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Sanford “Sonny” Miller was born in Bangor, Maine, on January 18, 1927, to Myer and Rena Miller. He grew up in Bangor and completed a commercial course of study at Bangor High School, graduating in 1944. He enlisted in the Navy V-6 program at the age of seventeen and served in the Pacific theater of World War II, working as a storekeeper in the Philippines. He was discharged in 1946 and spent a year studying at Bentley University in Boston, and he was a bookkeeper for Hammond Motors for two years. He worked in the jukebox and pinball machine business for a time, eventually returning to Bangor to enter the restaurant business with his family. For many years he owned Miller’s Restaurant in Bangor; he died November 26, 2009.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; his father’s prediction of developments in international relations; the Jewish community in Bangor; an anecdote about how Miller started school too early; Miller’s experience in the Navy; stories about how the storekeeper in the Philippines got better food supplies; how Miller’s mother got him into college; attending Bentley University on the GI Bill; the jukebox and pinball business; opening Miller’s Luncheonette; opening the newer Miller’s Restaurant locations; meeting John Glenn; Marshall Stern; an anecdote about delivering milk for George Mitchell and joking about drinking milk in their shorts in the Blaine House if Mitchell won the governor’s race; going to Augusta for Mitchell’s swearing-in as a federal judge; traveling to Washington, D.C. to see Muskie’s swearing-in as secretary of state and going to the White House; Mitchell’s saying he’d prefer to spend time with Miller than go to the White House for dinner; keeping his word not to bother Mitchell with political favors; Miller’s involvement in the University of Maine; and talking with Mitchell about establishing scholarships.
Date: 2008-03-20
Creator: William 'Bill' C Hiss
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
William Charles “Bill” Hiss was born on August 4, 1944, in Orange, New Jersey, and grew up in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, with his mother, a kindergarten teacher, and his father, a businessman. He was graduated from Bates College, class of 1966, and attended Harvard Divinity School. Before graduating, he lived in a parish in East Harlem and taught at a public middle school in Morrisania in the Bronx. He undertook graduate studies at Tufts University and returned to Bates in 1978 as acting dean of admissions for a year, later becoming dean of admissions; he now serves as vice president of external and alumni affairs. He was a founding member of the Mitchell Institute and continues to serve on its Board of Directors.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: working on the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (and the development of FAFSA); working with Senator Snowe; Mitchell’s visiting every high school in Maine; original Mitchell Scholars program and George Mitchell’s vision; examples of remarkable Mitchell scholars; Northern Ireland; and development of the Mitchell Institute.
Date: 2009-06-25
Creator: Jeffrey 'Jeff' W Porter, Mary A Porter
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Mary Adele (Federle) Porter was born in Bronxville, New York, on July 23, 1966. Mary’s father, Victor Federle, was trained as a lawyer but worked in the shoe industry in Maine for Scoa Industries; her mother, Antoinette Federle, was a homemaker. Mary was the eighth of nine children and grew up in Waterville, Maine, where she was family friends with the Mitchells. Mary attended Colby College and took an internship in Senator Mitchell’s Washington, D.C. office during her junior year. Jeffrey Wade “Jeff” Porter was born in January, 1966, in Portland, Maine. His parents, Yvonne (Cupo) Porter and John Warren Porter, were both teachers. Jeff attended the University of Maine, Orono and then transferred to the University of Southern Maine, where he also received an internship in Senator Mitchell’s office. After graduating, Jeff continued to work for the senator in the Portland, Maine, field office.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Mary’s familiarity with Mitchell and his family in Waterville; how Mary and Jeff got internships with Senator Mitchell; Mary and Jeff’s respective political backgrounds growing up; Mitchell’s focus on hiring students from Maine to intern in his office; responsibilities of interns in Mitchell’s office; description of Mary McAleney and Gayle Cory; relationship between Mitchell’s DC and Maine offices; Mitchell as Senate majority leader; Mitchell’s 1988 reelection campaign; Jeff getting to know Mitchell personally by driving him on campaign routes; Mitchell’s relationship with Senator Dole; Senator Muskie’s influence on Mitchell; and the Mitchell Institute and scholarships.
Date: 2010-04-20
Creator: Beverly M Sherman
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Beverly (Marshall) Sherman was born in 1937 in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, to Ruth and Norris Marshall. She attended the University of Michigan and the University of Southern Maine. She had slight involvement in Mitchell’s 1982 U.S. Senate campaign and was more deeply involved with events and fund-raising for his 1988 Senate reelection campaign. She also worked with Mitchell’s staff to organize several events, including visits from President Clinton and New York Governor Cuomo, as well as the “thank you” event in Maine upon Senator Mitchell’s retirement announcement.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; Old Orchard Beach; description of George Mitchell in 1981-1982; frugality in the state field offices; U.S. Senate campaigns (1982 and 1988); Bill Clinton’s visit to Maine and organizing the event; Senator Mitchell’s retirement and the “thank you” event; Boys and Girls Club and cribbage story; and the Mitchell Institute.
Date: 2011-05-10
Creator: George J Mitchell
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
George J. Mitchell was born on August 20, 1933, in Waterville, Maine, to Mary Saad, a factory worker, and George Mitchell, a laborer. Senator Mitchell spent his youth in Waterville. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College in 1954, he served as an officer in the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps until 1956. In 1960 he earned a law degree from Georgetown University. Mitchell worked for Senator Edmund S. Muskie as executive assistant and as deputy campaign manager during Muskie's 1972 presidential campaign. He later became U.S. senator (D-Maine) 1980-1995, Senate majority leader 1989-1995, and, upon his retirement from the Senate, special advisor on Northern Ireland 1995-1998. Since 1998, Senator Mitchell has served on many boards and committees and has received high profile appointments including: chairman of the Sharm el-Sheikh International Fact-Finding Committee on the crisis between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (2000); overseer of the Red Cross Liberty Fund (2001); lead investigator into the illegal use of performance enhancing substances in Major League Baseball (2006); and special envoy for Palestinian-Israeli affairs (2009-2011).
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: motives for founding the Mitchell Institute; traveling around Maine as senator to visit high school assemblies and graduations; Mitchell’s perceived disparity in higher education opportunities among various Maine schools and school districts; the value and importance of a college education; raising funds to endow the Mitchell Institute and formulating plans to develop a scholarship program; Senate campaign fund-raising prior to Mitchell’s decision in 1994 not to seek reelection; Bill Hiss’s and Colleen Quint’s role in forming the Institute; the value and number of scholarships awarded; educational research conducted by the Institute; childhood reminiscences of playing sports in Waterville, Maine, especially baseball; involvement in professional baseball, meeting Bud Selig, and Mitchell’s being considered for the position of Major League Baseball commissioner; Baseball’s Blue Ribbon Commission on competitive team balance; involvement with the Red Sox baseball team; business consequences of accepting the post of special envoy to the Middle East peace process; investigating steroid use in Major League Baseball, the public’s intense interest in the report, and resistance to the investigation by the Players Association; friendship and playing tennis with Red Auerbach; impoverishment and jobs held while a student at Bowdoin College; working a summer job at Colby College after Mitchell’s senior year at Bowdoin; ROTC and subsequent Army service in Berlin in Counter-Intelligence; decision to enroll at Georgetown Law after military service.