Robert W. Larrow (April 27, 1916 - August 2, 1991)[1] was an American attorney, politician, and judge from Vermont. He served as an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court for seven years.[2] [3] The Vermont Encyclopedia describes him as "among a small group that led to the revitalization of the Vermont Democratic Party in the 1950s and 1960s, ending the Republican hegemony in Vermont."[2]
Larrow was born in Vergennes, Vermont, on April 27, 1916.[3] He attended the Vergennes schools and graduated from the College of the Holy Cross and Harvard Law School, receiving his law degree in 1939.[3] He then entered into partnership with Joseph A. McNamara as the firm of McNamara & Larrow.[4]
Larrow served as Burlington city attorney for nineteen years, from 1944 to 1963.[2] [3] He was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1949, serving until 1951.[2] [3]
Larrow unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1952 against incumbent Lee E. Emerson.[2] [5] Emerson was broadly unpopular, and had barely beaten back a challenge in the Republican primary from maverick state senator Henry D. Vail.[6] At the time, Larrow was thirty-six years old and known for being "bright and articulate," with "considerable energy and drive despite his Sydney Greenstreet-like girth."[5] With his "diligent work habits and sharp wit, Larrow ran a vigorous campaign": he lost, but received 60,051 votes, some 40 percent of the vote: a record high for a Democratic candidate for governor, and nearly 40,000 more votes than the Democratic candidate had received in 1950.[2] [5] Larrow's run was the first time in decades that a Democrat had actively and credibly campaigned for governor, and a sign of the resurgence of the Democratic party in Vermont after decades of Republican dominance.[5] [7]
He ran as the Democratic candidate for state attorney general in 1962, on a ticket with Philip H. Hoff; Larrow lost to Charles E. Gibson Jr.,[8] but Hoff won, becoming the first Democratic governor of Vermont in more than a hundred years.[2] The next year, Larrow unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Burlington.[2]
Larrow was chairman of the State Liquor Control Board from 1963 to 1966,[3] and a Superior Court judge from 1966 to 1974[3]
Larrow became an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court in 1974. He was the last state supreme court justice in Vermont to be elected by the Vermont General Assembly; an amendment to the Vermont Constitution gave the power of appointment to the governor.[2] [3]
Larrow retired from the state supreme court in 1981, after seven years on the bench, at the age of sixty-five.[2] [3] [9] Vermont Chief Assistant Attorney General Louis P. Peck was appointed to replace him.[10]
Larrow died on August 2, 1991, at the age of seventy-five, after a long illness.[3] Larrow was buried at New Mount Calvary Cemetery in Burlington.