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Mainers Set to Honor Life of True Environmentalist

March 11, 2009 - PORTLAND -- Harrison Richardson wasn't extraordinarily tall. But he had a big presence – one friend called it a "robust manner" – that commanded attention and respect wherever he went.

And that might help explain why he left such large footprints on Maine's landmark environmental policies.

"If you had to pick somebody to be the James Madison of (Maine's) environmental constitution, I'd say it was Harry as much as anybody," said state Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, a longtime friend.
Richardson, a Portland trial lawyer, former legislator and environmentalist, died Feb. 26 at age 79. Family, friends and admirers will hold a memorial service at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Ocean Gateway ferry terminal in Portland.

Pretty much anyone who appreciates Maine's environment is indebted to Richardson, whether they know it or not.

He was born in Bangor and became a football star at the University of Maine. He served with the Marines in Korea and started a law career in Chicago before returning to Maine in 1963.

Richardson settled in Cumberland and began a law firm in Portland with friends, including Horace Hildreth, a fellow environmentalist from Falmouth.

Richardson was a tough litigator, said Mills, who recalls joining the law firm as an intern in 1973 and being eager to meet the well-known lawyer. "He was regarded as a force to be reckoned with in the courtroom," Mills said.

Richardson wasn't much more than 6 feet tall, Mills said, but he had a hearty build and a hearty personality.

"When he walked into a room, whether it be a courtroom or a living room, he had a way of training his audience that when he spoke, you had to shut up and listen," Mills said. "He was worth listening to."

Hildreth, his former law partner, said he was always struck by, and sometimes envious of, his friend's commanding presence. "Harry just had that kind of thing – sparks shot off him," Hildreth said. "He just seemed big."

Richardson and Hildreth, both liberal Republicans, shared political aspirations, as well as what was then a not-so-fashionable desire to protect the environment.

"I think he had watched, as I had, too, the machinations of the paper companies and thought to himself, 'This isn't what Maine really needs,' " Hildreth said.

Richardson served in the Maine House from 1965 through 1970, and was Republican floor leader for his last three years there. He started fighting for environmental causes as a freshman, even standing up against his party on the House floor over protection of a stream in northern Maine.

"I think he kind of enjoyed controversy," Hildreth said. "It was just his nature. He never hesitated to say what he believed in or felt."

Hildreth remembered one speech when Richardson even said that if cleanup laws put polluters out of business, "he would be very happy to meet them at the Kittery exit with a brass band wishing them well on their way out of the state."

Hildreth was elected to the state Senate in 1966, and the pair would team up on a number of major environmental laws. They include the so-called site law, which provides state environmental oversight of significant development projects in cities and towns, and the law that created the first land use rules for Maine's unorganized territories, then called the wildlands.

"For some reason, it was one of those times when all the stars were in alignment and both parties were very interested in environmental stuff," Hildreth recalled. "I can remember sitting at my kitchen table with Harry and we knew that the Legislature was very acceptable to environmental improvement, and we were wracking our brains trying to think of what law can we pass."

Richardson was perhaps most proud of sponsoring the nation's first law to create an oil-spill cleanup fund by taxing oil shipments through state waters. He also had a role in the creation of the modern Department of Environmental Protection, the state's billboard ban, the returnable bottle law, shoreland zoning protections, river protection and the reclaiming of Maine's public woodlots, among other things.

Richardson's legacy is the foundation of the state's modern environmental protections, according to Mills. "It was just an extraordinary era," he said.

In 1971, this newspaper called Richardson "one of the chief architects of some of the strongest environmental protection laws ever passed by a state Legislature anywhere."

Richardson later served in the Maine Senate from 1973 to 1975 and narrowly lost the Republican nomination for governor in 1974. He would stay active in environmental issues for the rest of his life.

Some would later say his environmental stands made too many enemies for statewide office. He would simply joke that he was the best governor Maine never had.

JOHN RICHARDSON, Portlnad Press Herald, March 7, 2009


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