Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Fall 2014, Vol. 40, No. 3 | Page 44

by Thomas S. Valente, Esq.

IN MEMORIAM:
Senator James M. Jeffords (1934-2014)
A Public Servant Whose Roots Were in the Vermont Bar
Rutland County’s historic courthouse
sits near the top of Center Street, just up
the hill from the heart of the city’s downtown. At nearly 150 years old, the building
is full of history. For denizens of the court,
however, the most revered element of the
courthouse is neither its historic bell tower,
nor its other trappings. Instead, a diminutive meeting room on the building’s second
floor is held in the highest esteem.
The “lawyer’s room” is not adored for
its functionality, but instead for the adornments on its walls—framed photographs
of the deceased members of the Rutland
County Bar. Sadly, the most recent addition to this collection is a photo of Senator
James M. Jeffords. It is a fitting tribute to a
man who prided himself on his roots in Rutland County and in the Vermont Bar.
Approximately twenty years ago, another Vermont high school student and I met
with Senator Jeffords in his Washington,
D.C., office. Four photos held a prominent
place near his desk. They were not photos
of world leaders or presidents, but of four
Vermont lawyers:
• His father, Olin Jeffords, who had
served as the chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court;
• Major General Leonard Wing, the only
National Guard officer to command a
combat division in World War II, who
had been Olin Jeffords’ law partner
and a neighbor to the Jeffords family;
• Frederick “Ted” Delany, a Rutland attorney (and candidate for lieutenant
governor before his tragic death) for
whose law firm Jeffords had clerked;
and
• Judge Ernest Gibson, Jr., for whom
Jeffords had also clerked.
During our meeting, Senator Jeffords
shared his passion for these Vermont attorneys and the influence they had on his life.
His former law partner, Arthur E. Crowley,
Jr., recently recalled that, “all of those people had an impact on him as a person, on
his career, and on his desire to serve.” Senator Jeffords was a man who never forgot
his roots as a member of the Vermont Bar,
and who incorporated those experiences into a political career that would have
a lasting impact on both Vermont and the
nation.
James Merrill Jeffords was born in Rutland in 1934, the son of Olin and Marion
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Jeffords. After attending Yale University,
he served on active duty in the U.S. Navy,
and then went on to Harvard Law School.
In 1962, he married Liz Daley of Burlington.
They had two children, one of whom they
named after General Wing.
He began his career doing a number of
clerkships: first, for Pearly Feen in Burlington, then for O’Neil, Delany, and Valente in
Rutland, and finally for Judge Ernest Gibson, Jr., in the United States District Court
for the District of Vermont. On that day in
his office, Jeffords recollected that those
experiences, particularly clerking for Ted
Delany and Judge Gibson, had a tremendous impact on his life.
Following these clerkships, Jeffords went
into private practice in Rutland, partnering
with Earle Bishop. Arthur Crowley recalled
that Bishop and Jeffords sued and received
a judgment against a major motor vehicle manufacturer in a case that garnered
much media fanfare. Crowley joined them
in practice after he completed his term as
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • FALL 2014

Rutland County state’s attorney, and they
formed the firm of Bishop, Crowley, and
Jeffords.
Jeffords was active not only in the courtroom, but in the Vermont Bar Association,
serving as the president of its Young Lawyers Division. He began his political career with his election to the Vermont State
Senate from Rutland County in 1966, and
served on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, as well as on the Judicial Selection
Board. During this period, he joined a firm
led by well-known Rutland attorney Clayton Kinney.
In 1968, he was elected attorney general of Vermont. In his autobiography, An
Independent Man, Jeffords wrote at great
length about his experience as attorney
general. He was most proud of his efforts to
protect Vermont’s environment. He spearheaded the passing of Act 250, and attorney John Hansen of his office led the effort
for passage of Act 252, which addressed
water pollution control. Jeffords explained
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