Robert K. Killian

Robert Kenneth Killian
Robert Kenneth Killian
	Thomas J. Meskill
Preceded by	Harold M. Mulvey
Succeeded by	Carl R. Ajello
Personal details
Born	September 15, 1919; LL.B.)

Robert Kenneth Killian (September 15, 1919 – June 25, 2005) was an American politician from Connecticut.

Early life and education

Killian was born in Hartford in 1919. He served as a

Okinawa. ^{[citation needed}

]

Career

After returning to the United States, Killian graduated from

Hartford Law School on 1948. He was admitted to the bar in Connecticut in 1948 and joined his law school classmate Robert Krechevsky and Samuel Gould to found the Hartford

law firm, Gould, Killian and Krechevsky (now Gould, Killian and Wynne).

He served as the city of Hartford's assistant

Governor John N. Dempsey chose Killian to fill the vacancy left by Harold M. Mulvey. He won election in his own right three years later, one of only two Democrats to survive a Republican

sweep of statewide offices, including the governorship.

In 1974, Killian was elected the

101st Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut on the ticket headed by Governor Ella Grasso. Displeased with the way the governor was handling issues including the state's fiscal crisis as her re-election approached, Killian waged a bitter primary campaign against Grasso in 1978. He lost and was replaced on the ticket by William A. O'Neill

, who later succeeded Grasso as governor in 1980 after her resignation shortly before her death from cancer.

Last years

Killian then spent a decade as chairman of the Hartford Civic Center and Coliseum Commission. He died in Hartford in 2005, aged 85, and is interred at Mount Saint Benedict Cemetery in Bloomfield, Connecticut.

Other

Killian was a

Roman Catholic and a member of the American Bar Association (ABA), the Elks, the Knights of Columbus and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick

.

While he was Connecticut Attorney General, Killian's office defended a 1970 decision by Connecticut's Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, John Tynan, to deny a drivers license to a man, David E. Follett, on the basis that he was "an admitted homosexual".[1] Follett later killed himself.^[2]

References

^ "Homosexual to fight denial of car license". The Day (New London). 1972-11-02.
^ "Connecticut".

External links

Profile from The Political Graveyard
Profile from the Connecticut Attorney General's Office

Legal offices
Preceded by Harold M. Mulvey	Attorney General of Connecticut 1967–1975	Succeeded by Carl R. Ajello
Political offices
Preceded by Peter L. Cashman	Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut 1975–1979	Succeeded by William O'Neill

[1] "Homosexual to fight denial of car license". The Day (New London). 1972-11-02.

[2] "Connecticut".

[2]