Scott M. Matheson

Scott Milne Matheson (January 8, 1929 - October 7, 1990), was the Governor of Utah from 1977 to 1985. He was the last Democrat to serve in that position. Popular enough to have likely won a third term as governor,Fact|date=July 2008 Matheson chose instead to retire to private practice. He then became the chair of the Democratic National Policy Commission.

Matheson was born on January 8, 1929 in Chicago, Illinois to LDS parents Scott Milne and Adele Adams Matheson. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Utah, settling first in Parowan, before moving to Salt Lake City, when his father became a federal prosecutor.

Matheson graduated from Salt Lake City's East High School in 1946, earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Utah in 1950, and a law degree from Stanford University in 1952. He operated a private law practice in Iron County, Utah for five years before taking a position with Union Pacific Railroad in 1958. At the railroad he rose to the position of general counsel before making his 1976 run for governor.

On 25 August 1951 he married Norma Louise Warenski, and the couple had four children, one is U.S. Congressman Jim Matheson and the other son, Scott Matheson, Jr., was the 2004 Democratic nominee for Utah Governor. Matheson died of multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer believed to have been caused by the radioactive fallout that landed "downwind" of nuclear tests performed at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s and '60sFact|date=September 2007. Matheson is buried in Parowan City Cemetery in Parowan, Utah.

References

*cite news |last=Fowler |first=Glenn |title=Scott Matheson, 61, Ex-Governor And Leading Democrat in Utah |pages=D10 |publisher=New York Times |date=8 October 1990

External links

* [http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/m/MATHESON%2CSCOTT.html Scott M. Matheson] from [http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/index.html Utah History Encyclopedia]