Raymond Shafer: Governor from the Gridiron to Rockefeller

Raymond Shafer launched his legal career right here in Meadville before rising to become one of Pennsylvania's most consequential governors of the nineteen sixties. A World War Two Navy veteran and Allegheny College graduate, Shafer served in the state Senate from nineteen fifty-nine to nineteen sixty-two, then as Lieutenant Governor under William Scranton. As Governor from nineteen sixty-seven to nineteen seventy-one, he presided over a sweeping revision of the state's eighteen seventy-four constitution, modernizing a document nearly a century old.

He championed welfare improvements, environmental protections, public-sector unions, and expanded education funding. After leaving office, he chaired the national commission on marijuana and drug abuse and later served as special counsel to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, carrying his reform instincts onto a national stage.