Vincent Illuzzi Jr.R.I.P., Vincent Illuzzi Sr., Granite Sculptor, 1920-2013 (born September 17, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician from Derby, Vermont, who formerly served as a Republican member of the Vermont State Senate representing the Essex-Orleans senate district.
Illuzzi was first elected to the Vermont Senate in 1980. From 1976 to 1979, he was a correspondent for the Burlington Free Press. In 1978, he interviewed Peter Galbraith when he was chair of the Vermont Democratic Party; some 40 years later, they served together in the Senate. At 27, Illuzzi was the youngest person ever elected to the Vermont Senate, a record he held until 2024. He served from 1981 to 2013. He did not run for reelection in 2012, and was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Vermont Auditor of Accounts.
He currently serves as the State's Attorney for Essex County,State's Attorney for Essex County although a resident of neighboring Orleans County. The question of residency was the subject of a State Superior Court case:
Arguably, there is an equally compelling policy reason for allowing voters to elect officials who do not reside in the voters’ county: it increases the pool of eligible candidates to fill those positions. Such a consideration may be important for small counties like Essex which may have few lawyers or law enforcement officers willing to run for state's attorney or sheriff. Without a residency requirement, voters may be better assured that they are electing the most competent and qualified person willing to hold the office. If the framers had intended county officials to be county residents, they would have specifically mandated that in the constitution.
- Noble v. Sec’y of State, No. 48-9-10 Excv (Manley, J., Oct. 21, 2010)
Background and personal life Vincent Illuzzi was born in Montpelier, Vermont, on September 17, 1953. An attorney, he received his A.B. degree from Saint Michael's College in 1975 and a J.D. degree from Vermont Law School in 1978.
Illuzzi is married to Eileen Maher. The couple live in Derby and have one son, Vincent.
Illuzzi is the son of Vincent Illuzzzi, Sr.Vincent Illuzzzi, Sr. (1920–2013), born in Giovinazzo, Italy, who emigrated to the US at the age of 17 and became a granite sculptor. Illuzzi Sr. carved one of the largest monuments ever shipped from Barre, a granite sculpture depicting a person chained to a wall that is part of the Taras Shevchenko Memorial located near Dupont Circle, Washington DC. He also supported the restoration of the Old Labor Hall and the Vermont Granite Museum in Barre. In 2012, the newspaper Seven Days published a tribute to the elder Vincent Illuzzi, titled "Rock Star."
As Illuzzi Jr. summed it up when he delivered his father's eulogy:
Not bad for a 17 year old kid with an eighth grade education who couldn't speak English who left home and traveled to a faraway place called America to make his mark on life.Vincent Illuzzi provided me with the following
Vincent Illuzzi Eulogy
I would like to begin by thanking those who took care of our father as he marched on in age.
Joe was always there for him. And our father was doing fairly until he developed difficulty
walking several weeks ago. Even then, he was doing well, but moved to an assisted care facility.
The last few days of his life were difficult after falling and hitting his head reaching for a
newspaper. Joe was there every morning and night to make sure he was being taken care of.
Thanks to Joe's friends in the Barre Montpelier area who often visited with my father and
brought him lunch or treats. Paul Sayers, Sue Fowler. Elaine Ojala.
Thanks to the pallbearers. Scott Mears, Jeff Poitras, Rick Dente, Jack Franks, Guy Larmache
and Greg Larson.
Thanks to Evelyn Berglund of Berlin, who was my father's companion for the past ten to 15
years, and who enjoyed dancing and attending concerts on the State House lawn with him.
And thanks to Dr. Kevin Kerin of the Veterans Administration and Dawnice Downs who worked
at the VA. They were very kind to him.
My father was born in 1920. The world was a different place 93 years ago. Warren Harding was
president. Benito Mussolini in 1922 would take over the government of Italy.
In southeast Italy, jobs were scarce. There were some in agriculture -- in olive groves, wheat
fields, and fruit tree orchards. And there were shipping jobs on ships going from Bari, Italy to
Yugoslavia and Greece, over the Adriatic. And after the Great Depression hit the world in 1929
and continued through the beginning of WWII, there were even fewer jobs and even fewer
opportunities for young people.
Education at that time didn't put food on the table. Our father finished the equivalent of 8 th grade
and then learned to be a sculptor by apprenticing with local artists. But there weren't many jobs
in the field either.
These basic facts set the stage for my father at age 17 to seek opportunity and a job across the
Atlantic ocean in America.
He didn't speak English. He had no money. Fortunately, his father had arrived in America a
few years before our father and was living and working in New York City. But Greenwich
Village didn't have a lot of positions for sculptors, so he moved to Montpelier, which at that time
had a very active granite industry in the sheds that used to line what is now known as Granite
Cutters Way.
His work required pounding physical labor, but it needed to be very precise. That's because as an
artist who worked with stone, the equivalent of his paint brush was a hammer and chisel. But
unlike a painter, he couldn't paint over his mistakes or problems. No room for error. If defects
in the stone were uncovered as he carved it, it meant in some cases starting over again with a
deeper sculpture or on a different piece of granite. In either event, weeks of delay.
His goals in life were to do quality work, earn a living, and take care of his family, as well as to
continue to support his mother until she died in her 90s. He served his country during WWII.
He helped the granite industry long after he was retired. When the Vermont Legislature
authorized construction of the Vermont Veterans Cemetery in Randoph Center, he suggested that
only upright granite and marble markers be authorized. The Veterans Administration was
considering mandatory use of monuments flush to the ground to make it easier to maintain the
cemeteries across America. He volunteered in his community and lent support to restoration of
the Old Labor Hall and the Barre Granite Museum.
Our father was not a material person. He didn't seek fame. But it did bother him – and me --
that he and other sculptors of his generation were denied recognition for their work. Granite
shed owners did not allow sculptors to sign their work for fear that the sculptors would attract a
following of their own and bypass their businesses.
So today he's gone. But he lives on through us, his children and his grandchild. And his great
works of art across America, carved in granite, will remain for centuries to come, long after all of
us are gone. We will always take pride in knowing that his talent will be admired and
appreciated until the end of time.
Not bad for a 17 year old kid with an eighth grade education who couldn't speak English who
left home and travelled to a faraway place called America to make his mark on life.
Not bad at all.
Illuzzi was a correspondent for the Burlington Free Press from 1973 through 1978, covering mostly Barre-Montpelier local news. He started working summers during college and then throughout law school on a part-time basis. His recollections from those days are captured in the PBS documentary Headline Vermont.Headline Vermont, see specifically in the section "The Politics and the Press" beginning at 36:48
In a 1974 article, he documented the Democratic Platform Convention and a resolution made by Peter Galbraith condemning Nixon's pardon.
Public life Senate Illuzzi was first elected to the Senate in 1980 and was re-elected every two years through 2010.
In the Senate, he served as Assistant Minority leader from 1985 to 1988 and Assistant Republican leader from 1991 to 1992 and 1997 to 2005. He served as Republican leader in 2005.Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, Advisory Board Member biography, Vincent Illuzzi, 2013
Legislative accomplishments In 2005, Illuzzi was appointed chair of the Senate Economic Development, General Affairs & Housing Committee, and served on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Economic Development CommitteeEconomic Development Committee was substantially responsible for the Vermont Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Act 54 of 2009, or H. 313) the purpose of which was “to promote the economic development of the state and the prosperity of its businesses and citizens. In the near-term . . . to address the immediate economic crisis facing Vermont.”
In November 2010, Illuzzi was honored at the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) annual conference for his "conviction and courage in taking the deficit in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Fund head on" and passing "a bill out of his committee that offered a viable solution." "In 2009 Senator Illuzzi also worked with VBSR to ensure passage of the Farm to Plate Investment Program law."
Six years later, the Farm to Plate initiative, a part of Act 54 of 2009, appeared "to be doing its job and has noticeably helped bolster Vermont's farm and food economy" according to a report conducted by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.
Another major bill introduced by the Economic Development Committee was S. 288, the “Jobs Bill,” which became Act 78 of 2010. This law appropriated $8.665 million to build on the work in Act 54 of 2009. It included funding for the Vermont Economic Development Authority to buy down interest rates on approved projects; the Vermont Telecommunications Authority for rural broadband deployment; the Vermont Employment Training Program to assist with training Vermont workers; marketing tourism in regional markets; assisting Vermont farmers to restructure and refinance debt and other projects.
The committee also cleaned up the law regarding the sale and ownership of mobile homes, making clear to municipalities, and to the buyers and sellers of mobile homes, their rights and responsibilities. Mobile homes are the only way that many Vermonters can secure affordable housing, but the law never had been comprehensively updated. Act 140 of 2010, or H. 542
The committee was also charged with finding cost savings and efficiencies in the Unified Economic Development Budget, which includes regional development corporations, regional planning commissions and workforce development programs. To that end, it implemented "Challenges for Change. Act 146 of 2010, or H. 792
Governor Howard Dean, whose tenure as governor largely tracked Illuzzi's tenure as chair of Senate Institutions, on December 10, 2002, said at the dedication ceremony of the McFarland House that Illuzzi had been particularly sympathetic to the appropriation requests from Washington County.
Illuzzi served as chair of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, General and Military Affairs from 2005. In October 2007, he was on a week-long diplomatic trade mission to Taiwan, that included Rhode Island's lieutenant governor and legislative leaders from Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, when that country was Vermont's number two trading partner.