Scott M. Matheson

Scott M. Matheson
12th Governor of Utah
In office January 3, 1977 – January 7, 1985
Lieutenant	David S. Monson
Preceded by	Cal Rampton
Succeeded by	Norm Bangerter
Chair of the National Governors Association
In office August 10, 1982 – August 2, 1983
Preceded by	Richard Snelling
Succeeded by	Jim Thompson
Personal details
Born	Scott Milne Matheson, Jr. (1929-01-08)January 8, 1929 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	October 7, 1990(1990-10-07) (aged 61) Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Norma Warenski
Children	4 (including Scott and Jim)
Education	University of Utah (BA) Stanford University (LLB)

Scott Milne Matheson Jr. (January 8, 1929 – October 7, 1990) was an American politician who served as the 12th Governor of Utah from 1977 to 1985. He is the most recent Democrat to serve in that position.

Matheson was born on January 8, 1929, in Chicago to Latter-day Saint parents Scott Milne and Adele Adams Matheson. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Utah, settling first in Parowan, before moving to Salt Lake City, when his father became a federal prosecutor.

Matheson graduated from Salt Lake City's East High School in 1946, earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Utah in 1950, and a law degree from Stanford University in 1952. He operated a private law practice in Iron County, Utah, for five years before taking a position with Union Pacific Railroad in 1958. At the railroad he rose to the position of general counsel before making his 1976 run for governor.

In 1998, the Utah Supreme Court was moved into the Scott M. Matheson Courthouse building.

During his term as governor, Matheson was named the defendant in the U.S. Supreme Court case of H. L. v. Matheson, which upheld state law requiring parental consent for a teenage girl to obtain an abortion.

In 1951, he married Norma Louise Warenski, and the couple had four children. One is former U.S. Congressman Jim Matheson. Another son, Scott Matheson Jr., was the 2004 Democratic nominee for Governor of Utah, and was appointed as a federal judge in 2010.

On October 7, 1990, Matheson died of multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer; he was buried in Parowan City Cemetery in Parowan, Utah.

References

• Fowler, Glenn (October 8, 1990), "Scott Matheson, 61, Ex-Governor And Leading Democrat in Utah", The New York Times: D10
• McCormick, John (1994), "Matheson, Scott M.", in Powell, Allan Kent, Utah History Encyclopedia, Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, ISBN 0874804256, OCLC 30473917

External links

Media related to Scott M. Matheson at Wikimedia Commons