Tribute

Bob Kinsey was a man of pumpkins and politics

by Chris Braithwaite

Bob Kinsey was a surprising fellow.

That's the first conclusion that emerged from a review of stories about Bob from the pages of this newspaper.

Thinking first of his 30-year career in state politics, one expects lots of political stuff — his stands on taxes, education, and budgets, for example, stories that would reflect his long tenure on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

That's all there, of course. But so are the surprises.

Bob Kinsey standing in front of one of the wild Halloween creatures he loved to piece together out of surplus garden vegetables.

Bob Kinsey working on the odd, four-sided "teepee" he built on the shore of his pond and, after a fire in 1998, built all over again.

Bob Kinsey cheerfully pushing a vintage automobile that had broken down during Glover's Bicentennial parade.

Bob Kinsey with his beloved ducks. Bob Kinsey carrying a puppet through Barton in Bread and Puppet's section of the Fourth of July parade.

Bob Kinsey throwing himself into a long-distance skating race on Lake Memphremegog organized for seasoned racers from Holland, and falling hard on a patch of bad ice.

Bob Kinsey, we are happy to report, had a good deal of fun during the 77 years he was with us.

He worked very hard. Kinseys are famously hard workers. He took a serious view of important things — family, farm, church, the decent conduct of government and the welfare of his constituents.

But he had a restless enthusiasm for making things that no one else would ever think of making, of trying things that few of us were willing to try, of stretching himself beyond the limits that a Presbyterian dairy farmer from the Kingdom might be expected to impose on himself.

Bob didn't head to college in the automatic way most bright young people do. He was probably too anxious to get started on a farm of his own.

But he enrolled in Lyndon State College at age 38, when a back injury threw his ability to do hard physical work into temporary doubt.

He also found time for politics. He won a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives in 1970 and held it for 15 terms.

Bob reached the peak of his political career in 1984, after winning his eighth election. The Republican party held a six-vote majority in the House. Bob, a skillful vote-counter in the corridors of the State House, had already served as the party whip and then majority leader. In the quiet campaign that's waged in the final weeks of election years, Bob convinced his Republican colleagues that he should move up to Speaker of the House, one of the most powerful positions in state government. The Republican majority should have assured his victory.

But Ralph Wright, a tough and canny Democrat, won an upset victory and took the speakership by a two-vote margin.

Bob settled into years of hard work on Appropriations, laboring on issues like property tax reform and education funding.

Then, of course, came civil union, an issue that was pushed out of the hallowed halls of the state Supreme Court and dumped into the lap of the Legislature.

It was, for Bob, an issue of conscience. He was always a man of principal, but never a man of fixed ideas. He was open to the lessons of life — his own, his family's, his friends' — and he took these lessons seriously.

He was famous, indeed, for answering questions with stories that meandered along until, if you listened carefully, would reach a conclusion that answered your question.

Bob voted for civil union in 2000, and knew he would face the political fight of his life.

We have a long string of his campaign announcements in our files, and our favorite is from July of that year.

After listing the substantial things he had done for his constituents in Montpelier, Bob made a promise:

"He pledges that he will not be voting to impeach the Supreme Court Justices or to repeal the civil unions bill. The Supreme Court ruled that there was discrimination. All the bigoted letters received and printed certainly proved that ruling correct."

When Republican voters denied Bob their nomination, he accepted the one he got from Democratic write-in votes.

After he lost the election that fall, friends organized a send-off in Craftsbury.

Representative Francis Brooks, an African American, drove up from Montpelier.

"If someone asked me to define what a Vermonter is," he said, "I would define it in terms of Bob Kinsey."

Democrat Barbara Postman, who lost her seat because she voted for civil union, said:

"He's always, always looking out for the little guy, for his constituents, and for the state of Vermont. Even the people who don't think they're going to miss him are really going to miss him."

When it was finally his turn to speak, Bob talked about his unpopular stands on some very tough issues, including civil union.

"If I had to do it all over again, knowing what would happen," he said, "I would not change my vote one iota."

All of us must wonder, from time to time, what we would do if we had to do it all over again.

Few of us can honestly say that we wouldn't change a thing.

But I believe that Bob Kinsey was indeed a member of that happy minority.