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Frank Licht

Frank Licht (3 March 1916-30 May 1987) was the Democratic Governor of Rhode Island from 7 January 1969 to 2 January 1973, succeeding John Chafee and preceding Philip Noel. Licht was the first Jewish governor of Rhode Island.

Biography[]

Frank Licht was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1916 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. He became a lawyer in 1942, and he served in the State Senate from 1949 to 1956, as an Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court from 1956 to 1968, and as Governor from 1969 to 1973. Licht pushed through an income tax to deal with his state's worsening fiscal crisis, and he approved several business projects and supported environmentalist legislation. He chose not to run for re-election due to the unpopularity of his income tax, and he returned to practicing law and died in 1987.

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