UPTON, RICHARD FRANCIS ( New Hampshire, 1949) was born in Bow,
New Hampshire, on September 3, 1914. His father, Robert William Upton, was
a U.S. senator from New Hampshire in 1953-54. Attending public schools in
Concord, New Hampshire, and the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire,
the younger Upton earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1935 as a senior
fellow. In 1938 he received a law degree from Harvard University. He then
began practicing law in Concord, eventually becoming senior partner in the firm
of Upton, Sanders & Smith.

Upton successfully ran for the New Hampshire House of Representatives as
a Republican from Concord in 1940, 1946, and 1948. During World War II he
served as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces. Named speaker for the 1949
session, Upton successfully sponsored a bill making New Hampshire's primary
the first real test of voter support during the presidential campaign. He was later
New Hampshire fish and game commissioner as well as chair of the state con-
stitutional conventions in 1964 and 1984.

Outside of politics Upton gained a reputation as a scholar of New England
history. His book Revolutionary New Hampshire was published in 1936. Pres-
ident of the New Hampshire Bar Association and the New Hampshire Historical
Society, he belonged to the Sons of the American Revolution and the Episcopal
Church. He was married in 1950, and he had two sons. Upton died in Concord
on August 12, 1996, at age 81.

RICHARD D. SCHUBART

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