Stanley Tupper, 84; was Maine congressman

Stanley R. Tupper, an independent voice who represented Maine in Congress from 1961 to 1967, died Friday in a hospital in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, his hometown. He was 84.

A Republican, Mr. Tupper was known as a strong advocate of the fishing industry and a supporter of the Coast Guard. He also developed a reputation as a renegade in the Republican ranks. He was one of two Republican sponsors for the Medicare Act in 1965. He also supported the civil rights and voting rights efforts of the mid-1960s.

In 1964, Nelson Rockefeller named him campaign manager in New England in his bid for the presidency. Rockefeller lost the nomination to Barry Goldwater, and Mr. Tupper broke with Republicans and declined to back the conservative senator from Arizona.

When Lyndon Johnson won the election in a landslide and broke the GOP's decades-long hold on Maine politics, Mr. Tupper was the only prominent Republican to win his election in the state.

He left Congress when President Johnson named him US commissioner general with the rank of ambassador to the Canadian World Exhibition in 1967.

Mr. Tupper led a life of distinguished service, US Senator Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine, and former Maine Governor John McKernan said in a statement.

A native of Boothbay Harbor, Mr. Tupper graduated from Hebron Academy in Maine and attended Middlebury College in Vermont.

He served in the Navy from 1944 to 1946 and earned a law degree from LaSalle Extension University in Chicago.

Mr. Tupper served in the Maine Legislature in 1953 and 1954 and later held posts as assistant attorney general and state commissioner of sea and shore fisheries. After leaving Capitol Hill, he returned to Maine and shared a law practice with his wife, Jill Kaplan Tupper.

Although he never again ran for office -- he never actually lost an election -- Mr. Tupper remained an independent voice in Maine politics. He was a leading opponent of the Maine Yankee nuclear plant in Wiscasset. In 1992, he supported Bill Clinton for president, declining to back President Bush, despite his ties to Kennebunkport.

Among his proudest accomplishments was organizing the Boothbay Regional Lobstermen's Co-Op, Mrs. Tupper said.

He also co-wrote a book that analyzed US-Canadian relations and wrote a collection of memoirs.

But the most fun he ever had on the job, Mr. Tupper told his wife, was when he was a border patrolman in Texas and Maine.

''He was 21, they gave him a Stetson, a horse, and a badge, and no other job ever quite measured up to that," his widow said.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Tupper leaves a son and daughter. At his request, there will be no funeral service.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this obituary.