Stanley Tupper was a Republican U.S. Representative; born in Boothbay Harbor, Lincoln County January 25, 1921; educated in Boothbay Harbor public schools, Hebron Academy; Middlebury College in Vermont, and LaSalle Extension University in Chicago. He served in the United States Navy from September 1944 to March 1946; later he was a member of board of selectmen of Boothbay Harbor in 1948, and served as its chairman in 1949.
Tupper was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Maine in 1949, in the Federal district court in 1950, and before the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1952. He began a term in the State legislature in 1953; served as Commissioner of the Department of Sea and Shore Fisheries, 1953-1957, and was assistant Attorney General from 1959 to 1960.
Elected as a Republican to the Eighty-seventh, Eighty-eighth, and Eighty-ninth Congresses (January 3, 1961-January 3, 1967), he was not a candidate for reelection in 1966. Appointed United States Commissioner General with rank of Ambassador to the Canadian World Exhibition in 1967, he resumed the practice of law in 1968 and later served as United State Commissioner on the International Commission for Northeast Atlantic Fisheries, 1975-1976.
A Republican, Tupper was known as a strong advocate of the fishing industry and a supporter of the Coast Guard. According to his wife, Jill Kaplan Tupper, among his proudest accomplishments was organizing the Boothbay Regional Lobstermen’s Co-Op, He also developed a reputation as a renegade in the Republican ranks. He was one of two Republican sponsors for the Medicare Act in 1965. He also supported the civil rights and voting rights efforts of the mid-1960s
In 1964, Nelson Rockefeller named him campaign manager in New England in his bid for the presidency. Rockefeller lost the nomination to Barry Goldwater, and Tupper broke with Republicans and declined to back the conservative senator from Arizona.
When Lyndon Johnson won the election in a landslide and broke the GOP’s decades-long hold on Maine politics, Tupper was the only prominent Republican to win his election in the state. He left Congress when President Johnson named him US commissioner general with the rank of ambassador to the Canadian World Exhibition in 1967.
After leaving Capitol Hill, he returned to Maine and shared a law practice with his wife. Although he never again ran for office — he never actually lost an election — Tupper remained an independent voice in Maine politics. He was a leading opponent of the Maine Yankee nuclear plant in Wiscasset. In 1992, he supported Bill Clinton for president, declining to back President Bush, despite his ties to Kennebunkport.
Stanley Tupper died January 6, 2006 in Boothbay Harbor.
Additional resources
“Stanley Tupper, 84; was Maine congressman.” Boston Globe January 9, 2006. On-line edition at http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/01/09/stanley_tupper_84_was_maine_congressman/