Licht, Frank, 1916-1987

FRANK LICHT was born in Providence, Rhode Island and received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1938 and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1941. After being admitted to the Rhode Island Bar, he clerked for a member of the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. He later became a partner in the Providence law firm of Letts & Quinn. He served as a state Senator from 1949 to 1956 and then a judge on the state Superior Court prior to running for governor. Despite winning election on a platform that opposed the imposition of a state income tax, Licht ultimately introduced such a tax on a temporary basis and made it permanent shortly thereafter. Licht also created the Rhode Island Industrial Building Authority, designed to guarantee mortgages or new manufacturing plants, and established the nation’s first statewide job skills bank. Licht also promoted legislation to permit selection of delegates to presidential conventions by direct public vote, and he created a Board of Regents to oversee public education and two new social services departments: the Department of Social Rehabilitation Services and the Department of Mental Health, Retardation, and Hospitals. Having had considerable experience with the legal system, he initiated state- and federally-funded criminal rehabilitation programs, established youth services bureaus to help keep young people out of trouble, enacted legislation giving courts the option to commit drug users to specialized rehabilitative programs rather than penal institutions, created a fifteen-member Drug Abuse Control Council to advise the governor and legislature in the field of drug addiction and rehabilitation, and reorganized the District Court system. A strong defender of the environment, he sought to expand anti-air pollution and anti-water pollution legislation while granting tax relief to businesses that incorporated modern pollution control systems into their operations. The Licht administration also revitalized the New England Water Pollution Control Commission, regulated the use of pesticides, and created an eleven-member Governor’s Council on Environmental Quality. After leaving office, Licht returned to the practice of law.

<p>Frank R. Licht (March 3, 1916 – May 30, 1987) was an American politician and the 67th Governor of Rhode Island from 1969 to 1973, serving as the first Jewish governor in Rhode Island state history. He was also an associate justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court from 1956 to 1968 and member of the Rhode Island Senate from 1949 to 1956.</p>

<p>Licht was born on March 3, 1916 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the son of Rose (Kassed) and Jacob Licht. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. He graduated from Brown University in 1938 and Harvard Law School in 1941, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at both universities. In 1946, he married Dorothy Shirley Krauss; they had three daughters, and eight grandchildren.</p>

<p>In 1942 Licht was admitted to the Rhode Island bar, where he served as a law clerk for Judge John C. Mahoney of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. He was a partner with the Providence firm of Letts & Quinn from 1943 to 1956 and was an active member of the Freemasons.</p>