Updated at 7:43 p.m.
Longtime Bennington County Senator Dick Sears has died at age 81, Vermont Senate leadership announced Sunday morning. A Democrat, he was remembered by colleagues as an indefatigable advocate for at-risk youth with drive and compassion developed through personal and professional experience.
Sears died over the weekend, according to a statement from Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central. A cause of death was not given.
A member of the Senate since 1993, Sears had been receiving treatment for skin cancer for several years and suffered from heart failure in 2022. He participated remotely in the Senate’s final votes last month due to an infection. However, he had filed the necessary paperwork to run again for the seat this fall, apparently intending to continue his service.
“Dick’s legacy is all but incalculable,” Baruth said in a statement issued by his office, noting Sears’ effectiveness and his longtime efforts to secure alternatives to incarceration, particularly for justice-involved youth.
“Bring to mind any major public safety, court reform or decriminalization initiative of the last thirty years, and chances are excellent that Dick Sears was the driving force behind it,” Baruth said, adding that he was “a tireless advocate, and a fearsome negotiator” as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of its powerful Appropriations Committee.
Sears saw his work on the two committees as closely aligned, Baruth said. “Every pressing concern he had — for our state’s prosecutors, our public defenders, judges, police, for the accused and the addicted and the orphaned — Dick brought eventually to the Appropriations Committee, insisting that true justice requires resources, not lip service,” he said.
Sen. Brian Campion, a fellow Democrat who represented Bennington County alongside Sears, called him “a dear friend” and said, “He was one of the most effective leaders in the Senate and will be sorely missed.”
Born in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1943 to a mother in prison, infant Richard Sears was adopted by a couple of that surname after nine months in the state’s foster system, according to a 2014 profile in Seven Days.
Sears graduated from the University of Vermont in 1966 and moved to Bennington in 1971, according to his legislative profile. Once there, he helped found a residential program for justice-involved boys called 204 Depot Street and served as its director for 35 years. He was also a member of the Bennington selectboard before joining the legislature.
Over the course of a long marriage, he and his wife Beverly, who died late last year, also served as foster parents to five teenagers.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott issued a statement Sunday morning honoring Sears, calling his death “an incredible loss for Vermont.”
“I appreciate his willingness to work across the aisle to get things done,” Scott said. “Just this past session, he worked closely with my team to pass important public safety legislation.”
Scott called Sears “a true champion for Bennington county,” adding that they often bonded over their shared love of golden retrievers.
U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in a statement that “no one contributed more to Bennington than the extraordinary Dick Sears,” whom he said “combined a generous heart with kindness and humor.”
For Baruth, Sears was more than just a colleague, he said in his statement. “Although in some ways we were unlikely friends and allies, I came to love him like a father and I will miss him like family,” he said. “And I know many others throughout the state will feel this tremendous loss.”
Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story made an errant reference to Baruth in one instance.
