Paul T. Veillette (1926-2019)
Career Government Manager & Negotiator
Colonial Historian & Genealogist
Paul Thomas Veillette, age 92, of New Concord, East Chatham, NY, passed on April 5, 2019 at Kingsway Arms Nursing Center in Schenectady, NY. Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on October 29, 1926, he was the son of the late Leopold and Florida (Gagnon) Veillette of Waterbury.
Paul earned his bachelor’s degree, with honors, from the University of Connecticut (1952) and his master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University (1954), where he was a Maxwell Fellow. He was admitted to three national academic honor societies, two local leadership honor societies, and to Who’s Who Among College & University Students.
He had a diverse career in government, often controversial, serving at every level over a period of four decades. His last assignment, before retiring in 1995, involved acting as Governor Mario Cuomo’s lead/chief negotiator on Indian casino gambling with the Oneida Indian Nation and the Mohawk-Iroquois of Akwesasne. Negotiations were successfully concluded in early 1993, when the Governor and Indian leaders signed the Compacts.
At age 17, after graduating near the top of his class from Leavenworth High School in Waterbury, he and his twin brother, during World War II, volunteered for service in the Coast Guard/Maritime Service on ships carrying troops to the European theatre. His ships came under enemy fire by German “buzz bombs” in Antwerp, Belgium, during the battle of the Bulge, and on the high seas via submarines. His ship, attacked by German submarines while near the English coast, was forced to drydock in Weymouth, England for repairs. Later, while a cadet in Communication Officers’ School at Hoffman Island, NY, the school was closed by the government midway through the program, and the two brothers joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving in its Air Transport Command.
After discharge, Paul began his university studies and, upon completion, joined the Connecticut Division of the Budget as a management intern, advancing rapidly through six positions to Chief Management Analyst, the state’s highest civil service competitive position. During two years of this ten-year period, he served, on leave, as the Director of Operator Control of the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Department, where he oversaw implementation of a computerized staggered registration system and of Governor Ribicoff’s controversial anti-speeding campaign.
In 1962, he was recruited by O.W. Wilson, the reform superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, to be the Director of Management Analysis, helping him reorganize the department, which had a record of widespread corruption, and also to computerize its FBI crime reporting system. After two years, he was recruited by NYS Governor Rockefeller’s Director of the Budget to oversee creation of a new state agency, now the Office of Criminal Justice Services, and to computerize the state’s criminal records.
After three years, he transferred to the Division of the Budget, where, as Deputy Chief Budget Examiner, he was in charge of the state’s central management analysis office until, in 1970, he was promoted to Chief Budget Examiner for Education in the State Division of the Budget, overseeing, for the next 12 years, the Governor’s budgets for SUNY, the Higher Education Services Corporation, the State Education Department and the Council on the Arts, totaling about 40 percent of the state budget. He oversaw the transfer of budgeting for the City University of New York from NYC to the state, receiving public praise from the university’s late Chancellor, Robert Kibbee.
He took two leaves of absence to serve as a Senior International Budgeting Consultant to Iran for the United Nations. The Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979 prevented his return for a third visit. From 1975 to 1991, he served as an adjunct faculty member at three graduate schools (Syracuse University, 16 years; SUNY-Albany, eight years; and Russell Sage, two years), teaching courses in governmental budgeting. During that period, he was co-author of a book on automation and author of a half-dozen articles in professional journals on public administration.
Wherever he lived, Paul was always active in professional and community affairs. In Connecticut, he had been president of the Connecticut chapter of the American Society for Public Administration, and, in Chicago, was a member of the executive board of the Chicago chapter. He was a Fellow of the NY State Academy of Public Administration, and a past president of the Albany chapter of Torch Clubs International and helped facilitate the admission of women to their membership. He was a member of the University Club of Albany since 1974, and served as founding vice-president of the University Club Foundation.
Paul served a half-dozen years on the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Chatham, two terms on the board of directors of the Columbia County Historical Society (the first treasurer), four years on the board of the Columbia County Council on the Arts (also as treasurer), and 35 years as Society Historian of the Society of New Concord, a civic and historical society, of which he was one of the three founding members. He led the successful Society campaign to purchase the two church buildings of the former New Concord Dutch Reformed Church, which now serve as the New Concord Meeting House and Community Hall. He was a long-time member of the Columbia-Greene Hospital Foundation’s board of directors.
He was the secretary-treasurer of the Veillette-Nifosi Foundation, Inc., which for the past decade has financially supported local charitable causes, particularly volunteer fire companies, PS21, Pop Warner football, historical societies, and Catholic organizations – including significant grants to the Columbia Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, the St. Regis (Mohawk) Jesuit Catholic Mission, and the Society of New Concord.
Paul, his family genealogist and historian, has had a number of articles on family history published, tracing his ancestry to the 16th century, which led to the creation of the Veillette family association in Quebec, of which he was a charter member. He wrote a half-dozen articles for the Columbia County Historical Society and a book on his community: An Early History of New Concord: c. 1760 to 1856. His weekly column in the Chatham Courier, which he wrote for 12 years, often contained vignettes on local history.
In 1993, the Albany chapter of the American Society for Public Administration honored Paul by granting him the Governor Charles Evan Hughes Award for exemplary public service. In October, 2012, the Capitol District Senior Issues Forum, an inter-faith organization, gave him its Senior Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Bishop Hubbard and Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings. Later that month, the Columbia County Historical Society presented him with its Heritage Award, calling him “the consummate local historian.”
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Frances Nifosi Veillette, and four children: James Veillette (wife Susan Franklin), William Veillette (wife Tracy Winfield), Sally Veillette, and Jeanne Veillette Bowerman (husband Maurice Bowerman), and eight grandchildren: Peter Veillette (wife Laurie Simontacchi), Simone Veillette Flynn (husband Shaun Flynn), Emily Veillette, Olivia Veillette, Paige Bowerman, Cole Bowerman, John Veillette, and Chiara Perni. He donated his remains to the Anatomical Gift Program at Albany Medical College, continuing his devotion to education. A funeral service will be held at St. James Church in Chatham, NY, at a date to be announced after his remains are returned. Burial of the remains will be at the Mountain View Cemetery in New Concord. For on-line condolences, visit wenkfuneralhome.com.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to either the St. James Church Fuel Fund (117 Hudson Ave, Chatham, NY 12037) or to the Society of New Concord (P.O. Box 3, East Chatham, NY 12060).