March 28, 2024
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Former House speaker dies at 94 Republican Good held leadership post in Maine Legislature during 1960s

SEBAGO – Vinal Good, a lawyer, businessman and former Maine House speaker in the 1960s, has died. He was 94.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at the Sebago Center Community Church attended by Good, a Republican and former town meeting moderator who died two days before Christmas.

The Houlton native graduated from Colby College and Northeastern Law School before serving in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Colorado during World War II. Later, he became a judge advocate at Fort Meade in Maryland, where he married his wife, Dorothy, in 1946.

After Good left the Army, he and his wife established the Sebago Agency, a real estate and insurance business they ran for more than 40 years.

Good became active in Maine politics in the early 1960s and was twice elected to the Maine House, winning the speaker’s post in his second year in 1961. He was elected to the Maine Senate in 1966.

In making his bid for House speaker, he mastered parliamentary procedure by playing recordings of the previous session and memorizing all the rules.

Then Good and his wife spent three weeks touring the state, lining up the vote of every legislator he could find.


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