Robert Haskell

Robert Nance Haskell (August 24, 1903 – December 3, 1987, Bangor) was a Maine state senator and the 65th Governor of Maine for five days in 1959.

Robert Haskell
65th Governor of Maine
In office January 2, 1959 – January 7, 1959
Preceded by	Edmund Muskie
Succeeded by	Clinton Clauson
Member of the Maine House of Representatives
In office 1945
Member of the Maine Senate
In office 1947
Personal details
Born	Robert Nance Haskell (1903-08-24)August 24, 1903 Bangor, Maine
Died	December 3, 1987(1987-12-03) (aged 84) Bangor, Maine
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Profession	Businessman, University Trustee

Haskell graduated from the University of Maine with an engineering degree in 1925. He became a design engineer with the Bangor Hydro-Electric Company and rose to president of the company in 1958. He was elected as a Republican to the Maine House of Representatives in 1945. After serving one term, he was elected to the Maine Senate in 1947 and served five terms, including two as majority leader and two as president of the Senate. He was nicknamed "Slide Rule Bob" for his mathematical abilities.

On January 2, 1959, outgoing Governor Edmund Muskie resigned before the end of his term to take his seat in the United States Senate. Haskell was sworn in as Governor to fill the five-day period until the inauguration of Clinton Clauson. With Clauson's death later in the year, Haskell was the second of four governors Maine had in 1959.

Haskell then left politics, but continued to lead the Bangor Hydro-Electric Company, as well as serving as a bank board chairman and a trustee of the University of Maine. He died in 1987.

He was not closely related to Nathaniel M. Haskell, who had served a brief term six years before as Maine's Governor due to being Senate President.[1]