Cal Rampton
Calvin L. Rampton was Utah’s longest-serving governor, serving twelve years from 1965 to 1977. He is credited for initiating the first major bonding/building program in the state’s history and restructuring government for the first time since Utah became a state.
He started “Rampton’s Raiders,” a group of volunteer businessmen who traveled the country drumming up economic and tourist interest in Utah.
Prior to being elected governor, he lost multiple elections, including state and U.S. senate races.
After retiring from government service in 1977, he returned to private law practice. He was also a lobbyist and chaired several political campaigns.
Although he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he didn’t always adhere to the precepts. For an example, the Deseret News noted that “more than one reporter found Rampton in private enjoying a large cigar.”[1] He taught Sunday School at one time and was Scoutmaster, a calling extended at one time through a ward bishop.
“He joined the Utah National Guard as an enlisted man in 1932. He rose through the ranks, becoming a sergeant and then a first lieutenant in 1937. When World War II broke out he was called up and glad to serve. But he'd had a severe case of pneumonia as a freshman in college — he nearly died — and somehow his Army medical records were mixed up with those of a man who had a bad heart. After only several months of active duty, Rampton was shipped home as too ill to serve, Army doctors stubbornly refused to admit they had the wrong records. It took Rampton nearly a year of writing letters to Army officials to get the matter straightened out. He was finally appointed to the Judge Advocate's office in the Army. He went into active duty in January 1942, shipped to Europe in 1944. After the war he served in the U.S. Army Claims Commission in Paris. He left as a major.”[2]
He served on many boards and was named “Outstanding Public Administrator in Utah” by Brigham Young University. He and his wife, Lucybeth, were honored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews with a “Brotherhood” award.
Rampton wrote an autobiography, As I Recall. He held degrees from the University of Utah, George Washington University.
He was born on November 6, 1913, in Bountiful, Utah, and died on September 2007. He was married to Lucybeth Cardon—a granddaughter of the late Anthony W. Ivins, a former member of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ—and they were the parents of four children.
