Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Lane Dwinell (1955-1959). Born Newport (VT); Lebanon (NH) businessman. In state politics from 1948.

Lane Dwinell's (1906-1997) family moved from Vermont to Lebanon (NH) in 1923 when Dwinell's father took a position in the Carter & Churchill garment manufacturing factory. Dwinell graduated from Lebanon High School (1924), and from Dartmouth (1928), receiving an M.C.S. degree from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration (1929).

1929/35 Dwinell was a financial analyst with General Motors Corporation in New York City. He married (Elizabeth Cushman, April 14, 1932), and returned to Lebanon in 1935 as a partner in Carter & Churchill. By 1949 Dwinell was principal owner of the company. Dwinell was a Republican member of the 1948 New Hampshire constitutional convention. He represented his community in the state legislature (1949/52); later he was both Speaker of the House (1951/52) and President of the State Senate (1953/54).

Dwinell entered the 1954 Republican primary for governor, won, and won the general election. He was reelected in 1956. As governor, Dwinell was committed to economy in government. The state was growing, and Dwinell built 300 miles of new roads and 100 new schools for 25,000 new schoolchildren. His administrations overhauled state accounting procedures, and in 1957 state employees' salaries were increased by 16%.

Location: State House, Second Floor
Portrait by R.S. Meryman, 1961