Governor George Herbert Utter

Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, GEORGE HERBERT UTTER graduated from Amherst College in 1877. He went on to work in his father’s printing business in Rhode Island and in 1893 started the Westerly Sun , a weekly newspaper. He served as an aide-de-camp to Governor Augustus Bourn from 1883 to 1885, following which he won election as a state Representative, serving for four years, as Speaker for a time. He was Secretary of State from 1891 to 1894 and won election as Lieutenant Governor in 1903 for a single one-year term. He went on to serve two terms as governor, during which he began the custom of having the Lieutenant Governor preside over the State Senate. After losing reelection in 1906, he returned to the publishing business but won a seat in Congress in 1910. He died while campaigning for a second term two years later.