Wright, Jim oral history interview

Jim Wright was born in Fort Worth Texas on December 22, 1922. He attended Weatherford College, 1939-40, University of Texas, 1940-41, and joined the U. S. Army Air Force in 1941. He was commissioned in 1942 and flew missions in the Pacific, where he received the distinguished Flying Cross. He served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1947-1949, and was Mayor of Weatherford, 1950-1954. He served as President of the League of Texas Municipalities in 1953. From 1955 to 1989, he served in the United States House of Representatives representing the 12th District of Texas. He held various positions in the House, including Deputy Whip, Majority leader (95-99th Congresses), and Speaker of the House, 1987- 1989. He ran for Majority leader, 1976; and was a delegate for the Democratic National Convention, 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968. He served as co-campaign manager for the Presidential election of 1968 in Texas. He was Democratic National Convention chairman in 1988, and wrote Balance of Power

Billings, Leon oral history interview

Leon Billings was born in Helena, Montana on November 19, 1937. His parents were Harry and Gretchen Billings. His father was an editor and publisher of a progressive newspaper; his mother was a crusading journalist. He graduated from high school in Helena, Montana in 1955, and then attended Reed College for one year in Portland, Oregon. He completed his undergraduate studies and took graduate courses toward an M.A. at the University of Montana at Missoula. Billings worked as a reporter and organizer for farm groups in Montana and California. He met his first wife, Pat, in California. They married in Montana and moved to Washington, D.C. on January 4, 1963. While in Washington, Billings worked for the American Public Power Association for three years as a lobbyist. In March 1966, he was offered and accepted a job on the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution on the Public Works Committee. He worked for Muskie helping to coordinate work on environmental policy. From 1966 to 1978, he served as staff director for the Subcommittee, and from 1978 to 1980 as chief of staff for Senator, and then Secretary of State, Muskie. He served on the Democratic Platform Committee staff in 1968 and in 1974, was co-chairman of a Democratic National Committee task force on Energy and the Environment. He later served as President of the Edmund S. Muskie Foundation; a tax-exempt foundation endowed with a $3 million appropriation from Congress to perpetuate the environmental legacy of Senator Muskie

Nicoll, Don oral history interview

Donald Eugene Don Nicoll was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 4, 1927, and grew up in the West Roxbury section of the city. He is the son of George and Mary Nicoll. He attended Robert Gould Shaw Junior High School and Boston English High School and graduated from Colby College in Waterville, Maine in 1949, majoring in History with a minor in Government. Don met his future wife, Hilda Farnum, also a Colby student, when they worked in the resort town of Ocean Park, Maine, in the summer of 1944. Nicoll began his graduate work at Pennsylvania State College in 1949, where he received a teaching fellowship in the Department of History. His graduate studies concentrated on American history, specifically the period from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War .. His M.A. (1952) thesis was on the Alien and Sedition Acts. Starting in 1951, Nicoll and his family settled in Buckfield, Maine where he picked apples and taught part time at Stephen\u27s High School, located in Rumford. Nicoll began working as an announcer for WLAM radio in Lewiston, Maine. He became a reporter and then news editor for WLAM and WLAM-TV. In June 1954, Nicoll left WLAM to become Executive Secretary of the Democratic State Committee at the request of Frank M. Coffin, who has just become chairman. Mr. Coffin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine\u27s Second Congressional District in 1956 and Nicoll went to Washington, DC, as his administrative assistant, continuing in that post until December 1960, the end of Congressman Coffin\u27s second term. Mr. Coffin ran for governor in 1960 and was defeated. After the election Senator Edmund S. Muskie asked Nicoll to join his staff as legislative assistant and news secretary. Nicoll served in that position until 1962, when he became administrative assistant. He continued in that post until 1971, when he became personal advisor to Senator Muskie. He left the senate office in mid-1972. From 1972 until his retirement in 2005 Nicoll worked as a program and policy planner, first as a consultant (1972-73), then as chairman and chief executive officer of the New England Land Grant Universities Joint Operations Committee (1973-1975), then as coordinator of planning and vice president for planning and public affairs for the Maine Medical Center (1975-1986), then as a consultant (1986-2005). His clients were primarily in the non-profit sector and included, universities, libraries, education associations, health care organizations and social service agencies. He also worked as a volunteer, heading a variety of public policy projects, including the Maine Task Force on Government Reorganization, the Maine State Compensation Commission, the Maine (Mental Health) Systems Assessment Commission, the Maine Consortium for Health Professions Education, the Southern Maine Community Television Consortium, the Maine Special Commission on Government Reorganization (co-chair), the Board of Visitors of the University of Southern Maine\u27s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, the Maine-Aomori Sister-State Advisory Council and the Governor\u27s Allagash Wilderness Waterway Working Group. From 1998-2005, Don Nicoll was the Director of the Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Project at Bates College