“Barbara was a dedicated public servant first and foremost,” former Gov. James Douglas told a capacity crowd at a public celebration at the Statehouse in Montpelier. “Her service made our great state an even better place.”
Douglas was one of dozens of Green Mountain State movers and shakers — headed by Gov. Peter Shumlin, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch and Lt. Gov. Phil Scott — whose presence honored Snelling, who died Nov. 2 at her South Burlington home at age 87.
The event began with Snelling’s children and grandchildren entering the House chamber as a string quartet played “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music.”
“Today, I am filled more with gratitude than with sadness,” daughter Diane Snelling, now a Chittenden County state senator, said alongside her siblings Jacqueline, Mark and Andrew.
A dozen family members and friends took turns at the speaker’s podium, sharing Snelling’s personal and political history. They started when she stood by her husband during his two separate stints as the state’s chief executive, from 1977 to 1985 and from January 1991 to his death seven months later from cardiac arrest at age 64. She then ran for political office herself, presiding over the state Senate from 1993 to 1997 as lieutenant governor.
Douglas recalled when the newly elected Snelling arrived at the Statehouse to meet Mr. Wright — Democratic Speaker Ralph Wright, her counterpart in the House. Things went wrong. Snelling, a Republican, sought a committee schedule from Wright, who went on to announce she was “an aggressive woman” — prompting her grandchildren to make lapel pins declaring “Aggressive woman at work.”
Snelling went on to launch a campaign for governor in 1996 but suffered a life-threatening cerebral hemorrhage, forcing her out of the race. After recovering, she ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1998, then won election as a Chittenden County state senator for two terms until another stroke caused her to resign in 2001.
Other speakers who offered remembrances included:
• Martha Maksym, executive director of the United Way of Chittenden County, who noted Snelling’s work for nonprofit causes ranging from serving as a local Girl Scout troop leader and Cub Scout den mother to raising money for numerous charities.
• David Dillon, who worked with Snelling when she was a vice president at the University of Vermont, later served as her husband’s press secretary and, on Friday, removed his suit coat to reveal a “Snell’s Angel” T-shirt.
• Stuart Comstock-Gay, president of the Vermont Community Foundation, where Snelling was a founding director and received the state’s largest philanthropic organization’s Leadership Award in 2012.
• State House Curator David Schütz, who worked with Snelling when she was founding chair of the nonprofit Friends of the Vermont State House.
• Val Gardner, director of the Vermont School Leadership Project at the Richard A. and Barbara W. Snelling Center for Government, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization established after the governor’s death in 1992.
• And Charles Kittredge, one of several family friends who shared personal stories.
Snelling, for example, was nine months pregnant when she graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1950. The school, however, wouldn’t let her parade with fellow students at commencement, fearing a gap in proceedings if she went into labor.
The child she was carrying, Mark, arrived shortly thereafter and today is volunteer president of his parents’ Center for Government. In his mother’s last days, she wasn’t speaking and rarely opened her eyes, he said Friday. But she made herself clear when he left to attend a center graduation.
“I said, ‘I have to go,’” he recalled.
She raised an eyebrow. He, in turn, reminded his mother of all her past work that led to the present ceremony.
“A broad smile came across her face,” Mark said to close the service. “Her legacy is large. I hope Vermonters will be inspired by Barbara’s life.”
Kevin O’Connor, a former staffer of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, is a Brattleboro-based writer. Email: kevinoconnorvt@gmail.com
