Richard T. Fleming

Richard T. "Dick" Fleming of Hingham, died on Wednesday, October 16, 2024 at the Pat Roche Hospice Residence. He was 92.

He previously resided in Hyannis, Brookline, Boston, Cambridge, Washington, DC, and Melrose. He was born into and raised in a loving Family in Melrose. His Father, Herbert P. Fleming, was a pioneer of Naval Aviation, a proud Graduate of Dartmouth College and a sales engineer and sales manager in automotive and industrial oils. His Mother, Sally Thorpe Fleming, was a homemaker who was very active in church, school and other civic activities.

Dick graduated from Melrose High School in 1949 and from Dartmouth College in 1953. His Dartmouth Graduation featured a speech by President Eisenhower, who urged the Graduates and others: "Don't join the book burners". These extemporaneous remarks, and President Eisenhower's extemporaneous warning to "Avoid the Military-Industrial Complex", continue to be most wise - even to today.

Dick has been a most loyal and active Member of his Greatest Class of 1953 and has served his Class as Treasurer for (19) years, as Chairman of the attendance record setting 45th Reunion and in many other capacities.

In 1953, Dick had also completed his first year at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He took a leave to volunteer to join the Navy and Graduated from Office Candidate School in 1954. He applied for duty on, and was ordered to, the USS Hale, which was by then involved in post-Korean War duty in the Far East. He drove across the Country, flew across the Pacific and joined the Hale to return Around the World to Newport, RI via the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and, in December, the very stormy North Atlantic. Dick always had an interest and very strong abilities in applied geography and soon became Navigator of the Hale- although the Navigator is usually the Executive Officer. He thrived as Navigator.

After his discharge from the Navy, Dick returned to Tuck School and graduated with his MBA in 1958. Following a brief stint with General Electric, Dick idealistically embarked on eight years of work trying to help move the Republican Party into the 20th Century. He had long been a Moderate Republican, inspired by President Eisenhower and by the Republican leadership in Massachusetts.

Dick was a pioneer in quantifying Ticket Splitter Analysis and Balance Sheet Analysis for political campaigns, starting in 1960. In 1962, Dick developed a Redistricting Plan for Massachusetts that consisted of 12 Districts that were contiguous, compact and approximately equal in size. Governor John Volpe, a trained Engineer, called Dick's work "ingenious". Every Election that Dick was significantly involved in was successful, from 1960 to 1968 - a perfect record.

He worked on successful campaigns for Congressman F. Bradford Morse and for the Massachusetts Republican State Committee. He was recruited by Elliot Richardson to staff the State Republican Platform Committee and to work on Mr. Richardson's successful campaign for Lieutenant Governor in 1964. He served as Legislative Assistant to Lieutenant Governor Richardson until he was recruited by the Republican National Committee. As one of the high points of his time with the RNC, he lectured on the Results of the 1966 Elections to three people who later became President of the United States.

Dick was recruited by Governor John Love of Colorado and Governor John Chafee of Rhode Island to be Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association. In that role he advanced good government, including staffing the Republican Governors Policy Committee under the Chairmanship of Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. In the 1968 Elections, he worked on campaigns that produced a gain of eight Republican Governors, to result in a total of 31 Republican Governors nationwide. After Dick's demonstrably successful record, Governor Regan became Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and his messages to Dick were: "You really know how to win elections" and "You're fired". Governor Reagan installed a very conservative Executive Director and the Republicans lost 11 Governorships in the next General Election.

Dick returned to Massachusetts, where he felt much more at home, and was recruited by the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for the "Number 3" position in the Department, in the administrations of Governors Volpe and Sargent. He directed the Legislative Program and, later, the Determination of Need Program. His tenure as Legislative Director was notable for the passage of four major Public Health Laws. His work in the Determination of Need Program was notable for the development of the Program to a viable, effective Program that fulfilled the Legislative Mandate of the Determination of Need Law: " ... so that adequate health care services will be made reasonably available to every person within the commonwealth at the lowest reasonable aggregate cost."

In 1974, he started a consulting business that specialized in Determination of Need and related matters. He consulted to more than one hundred health care facilities on projects that were designed to carry out the intent of the Determination of Need Law. Every contract that he accepted was consistent with the intent of the Law. He discontinued this work after twentyfive years.

Concurrently, in 1974, Dick began consulting to the Associated Press and other national news organizations (ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC, UPI) dedicated to reporting the national and state election results to the news media, and through the news media, to the people of the nation and the world.

Dick worked primarily in New England, which is the most difficult area to cover because here elections are the responsibility of the municipalities, and there are so many municipalities in New England. In New England, there are more than 1,500 municipalities, including 351 Cities and Towns in Massachusetts and more than 500 Cities, Towns, Plantations, Indian Voting Districts and Unorganized Townships reported by the AP in Maine.

Dick developed the AP's Election Reporting in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont with the close and invaluable cooperation of the municipal clerks in these states. He also worked on AP's Election Reporting in Rhode Island, Connecticut and 6 other states. Throughout his (49) years working for AP Elections, Dick has relied on his remarkable abilities in organization, personal relations and in demography and geography.

Dick was a Member of the Hyannis Yacht Club for 22 years, where he was very active on the Race Committee. When the HYC first conducted the Race Around the Cape, Dick was invited by Club Officers to be the Principal Race Officer. Dick was a US Sailing Certified Club Race Officer; a National Rifle Association Expert Riflery Marksman and Certified Riflery Instructor; and an American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor.

Since moving to the Linden Ponds Retirement Community in Hingham, he has thrived and has served as Vice Commander and Secretary of the Linden Ponds Veterans Association.

Dick is survived by several cousins.

Dick has established the "Herbert P. Fleming '19 and Sally T. Fleming Health Policy and Clinical Practice Endowment" at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine to support the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care for the purpose of demographic teaching, research and public information. This is consistent with Dick's life-long interests in health status and demography.

Dick has left his body to the Dartmouth Geisel School for the teaching of Medical Students. His only Memorial Service will be with his fellow residents of Linden Ponds. For friends who wish to make a Memorial Gift, Dick has suggested a gift to the "Herbert P. Fleming '19 and Sally T. Fleming Endowment", Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, Attn: Gift Recording, One Medical Center Drive, HB 7070, Lebanon, NH 03756-0001.