27 Facts About Richard Lamm

Richard Douglas Lamm was an American politician, writer, and attorney.

Richard Lamm served three terms as the 38th Governor of Colorado as a Democrat and ran for the Reform Party's nomination for President of the United States in 1996.

Richard Douglas Lamm was born on August 3,1935, in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Louise and Edward Arnold Lamm, a coal company executive.

Richard Lamm spent his college summers working as a lumberjack in Oregon, a stockboy in New York, and helping out on an ore boat.

Richard Lamm graduated from college in 1957, then served one year of active duty as a first lieutenant in the United States Army at Fort Carson in Colorado and Fort Eustis in Virginia until switching to reserve duty in 1958.

From 1958 to 1960 Richard Lamm lived in Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Berkeley, holding jobs as an accountant, tax clerk, and a law clerk.

Richard Lamm attended law school at the University of California, graduated in 1961, then moved to Denver in 1962, where he worked as an accountant and then set up a law practice.

Richard Lamm took to the Colorado lifestyle, becoming an avid skier, mountain climber, hiker, and member of the Colorado Mountain Club.

Richard Lamm joined the faculty of the University of Denver in 1969 and was associated with the University for the rest of his life.

Richard Lamm was selected as one of Time Magazine's "200 Young Leaders of America" in 1974, and won the Christian Science Monitor "Peace 2020" essay in 1985.

Richard Lamm was the recipient of the 1993 Humanist of the Year award from the American Humanist Association.

Richard Lamm was Chairman of the Pew Health Professions Commission and a public member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Richard Lamm was an early leader of the environmental movement, and was President of the First National Conference on Population and the Environment.

In 1972, as a member of the Colorado General Assembly, Richard Lamm led the movement against Denver's hosting of the 1976 Winter Olympics, as part of a group known as Citizens for Colorado's Future.

Richard Lamm ran for Governor of Colorado in 1974 on a platform to limit growth, and was elected.

Richard Lamm's views were satirized by noted folk singer Tom Paxton in January 1985.

In 1990, Colorado Democratic state party leaders tried to get Richard Lamm to run for the US Senate seat being vacated by Sen.

Less than 48 hours after Richard Lamm announced his candidacy, Ross Perot, who built the Reform Party from his United We Stand America organization, said he would run as the Reform Party nominee if drafted.

Ultimately Perot won 65.2 percent of the 49,266 votes cast by party members nationwide, Richard Lamm winning just 34.8 percent.

In 1985, while still in the governor's office, Richard Lamm tried his hand as a novelist.

In 2004 Richard Lamm unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the board of directors of the Sierra Club.

Richard Lamm urged that the Sierra Club advocate immigration controls as a way to limit environmental degradation due to population growth.

Richard Lamm served as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and on the board of directors of the Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America.

Richard Lamm was the Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies at the University of Denver.

Richard Lamm authored a book, The Brave New World of Health Care, a criticism of current United States health care policies and proposals for reforming them.

In 2005, a 2004 speech by Richard Lamm titled "I Have a Plan to Destroy America," became famous after being frequently forwarded as an email; in the talk he criticized multiculturalism.

Richard Lamm died on July 29,2021, in Denver from complications of a pulmonary embolism, one week before his 86th birthday.