Angus King Information

While Angus King has spent most of his adult life in Maine, the former two-term governor was born in Alexandria, Virginia. His parents were both teachers at the time and profoundly affected by their experiences during The Great Depression. Unwilling to borrow money, his father Stanley King often said, "If we can't pay for it, we don't need it. His mother, a Red Cross volunteer instilled a sense of public service in her children (in addition to correcting their grammar daily!) They spent family vacations fishing and camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Angus graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 and earned a law degree at the University of Virginia Law School in 1969. He began his career as a staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Skowhegan, Maine. In 1972 he became chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics in the office of then-Senator William D. Hathaway. In 1975 Angus returned to Maine to practice law with the firm of Smith, Loyd and King in Brunswick. That same year he began his 18-year career as host and co-producer of the television show "Maine Watch" on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. The weekly news program featured public issue discussions, candidate debates, and special productions. In addition to Maine public officials and business leaders, his guests included Ed Muskie, George Mitchell, Malcolm Forbes, Margaret Chase Smith, William F. Buckley, and David Broder. In 1983, Angus became vice-president of Swift River/Hafslund Company, an alternative energy development company based in Portland and Boston. Six years later he founded Northeast Energy Management, Inc., a developer of large-scale energy conservation projects at commercial and industrial facilities in Maine. Angus King was elected Maine's 71st Governor in 1994, becoming Maine's second independent governor. Four years later Maine people reelected King by one of the largest margins of victory in the state's history. He was one of only two independent governors in the country, the other being ...