Interview with Hoddy Hildreth by Mike Hastings
Biographial Note
Horace “Hoddy” Hildreth was born on December 17, 1931, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Katherine Cable Wing and Horace A. Hildreth, Sr. His father attended Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School, was Maine state senator, and later served as Maine’s governor from 1942 to 1946. His mother, Katherine Hildreth, was from the Midwest and attended Vassar College. Hoddy was graduated from Bowdoin College with a major in English and was a classmate of George Mitchell. He earned his law degree at Columbia and then returned to Maine to practice law at Pierce Atwood, where he did lobbying for paper companies. He was elected to the state Senate in 1966 and worked on creating environmental and conservation laws. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1968, then started his own law practice and began an environmental lobby in Augusta. He practiced law until 1979, when he became executive director for his father’s company, Diversified Communications. Although mostly retired from the company, he continues an active involvement with conservation issues. At the time of this interview, he was on the boards for the Conservation Law Foundation and the Maine League of Conservation Voters.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family background; father’s political career; living in the Blaine House as the son of the governor; attending Bowdoin College in the 1950s as a classmate of George Mitchell; his father’s ambassadorship to Pakistan and his last semester of college there; practicing law and lobbying in Augusta for Pierce Atwood and the paper companies; term as a state senator and the creation of environmental law in Maine; Land Use Regulation Law; environmental lobby in Augusta; his father’s company, Diversified Communications; interest in conservation issues and involvement with organizations like the Conservation Law Foundation; and reflecting on George Mitchell from the Republican point of view.