The doctor decides
On the campaign trail, Howard Dean is given to few words about his upbringing and his family, hewing instead to policy and politics.
Which is not to say voters are not curious about Dean the man; simply that Dean is not particularly forthcoming about his background. "I am a doctor. I grew up in New York state -- New York City and New York state," Dean explained in typical clipped fashion to an inquiring Iowa voter last fall, before segueing into a lengthy explanation of his work on Jimmy Carter's 1980 campaign, his political launching pad.
In part, Dean's reluctance is a product of the distance between his background and those of most voters. The Dean family has roots in New York dating to the 1600s. Many of his ancestors settled in Sag Harbor, a seaside town on Long Island, where they worked in the whaling industry. In the late 19th century, the Deans set their sights on Wall Street, beginning with Dean's great-great-grandfather, the first of four generations of Dean men to amass wealth in the financial district.
Dean, 55, grew up in a household dominated by the demands of his father's Wall Street job, which often kept the elder Dean -- a blustery prankster with conservative political stripes -- working late into the night. Home for the Deans was an 11th-floor Park Avenue apartment, but the family savored life at a weekend house in East Hampton, a shingled ranch overlooking a sparkling lake with wild geese.
Dean fondly recalls his upbringing but takes pains to dispel any aura of privilege. He likes to say he "grew up in the country" and insists that while the family was well off, they were not "Rockefeller rich" and free to live a leisurely life.
Like his father and grandfather, Howard Dean attended Yale University, where he studied political science but stayed away from the Vietnam War protests. Upon graduation, choosing a career was not an immediate necessity for Dean: He had just come into an inheritance and was free from military service. Dean had received an academic deferment while at Yale and was eligible to serve after graduation in 1971, but he presented evidence of a back problem and was excused.
Dean opted to go to Aspen, Colo., where despite his back condition, he skied. After nearly a year, he returned east to work on Wall Street. But he was not satisfied, and within another year he had hatched a plan to study medicine.
At Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, Dean met his future wife, a fellow medical student named Judith Steinberg. After graduating, the two traveled to Burlington, Vt., to serve their medical residencies. They married in 1981 at a New York hotel in a ceremony performed by a judge, so as not to compromise either of their religions -- hers Judaism, his Episcopalianism. (Dean later left the Episcopal Church to become a Congregationalist when a local church sided against a group he was leading that sought to create a bike path in Burlington.)
Dean swore off alcohol shortly after marrying, a decision he says was prompted by neither his new wife nor any particular incident, allowing only: "I didn't like the way I behaved when I drank."
The couple set up a family medical practice in Shelburne, a Burlington suburb. But even as his medical career matured, Dean was already looking beyond, to the world of politics. He volunteered to work on the Carter reelection campaign, where he met his political mentor, Esther Sorrell, who helped him win a race for state representative in 1982, his first bid for elected office.
Dean became Vermont's House minority leader in 1985 and was elected lieutenant governor the next year. In 1991, at age 42, Dean assumed the helm of the state government when Governor Richard Snelling died of a heart attack.
While Dean has earned a reputation on the presidential campaign trail as a liberal for his outspoken opposition to the Iraq war and President Bush's tax cuts, Dean in Vermont was known as a fiscal conservative who balanced the state budget and depended on a number of influential businessmen for advice -- friendships that some say encouraged the Republicans to front weak gubernatorial challengers whom Dean beat handily, winning office with solid margins in 1992, 1994, 1996, and 1998.
Dean gained national note with the state Supreme Court's decision in December 1999 decreeing that gay couples were due the same legal rights of marriage as heterosexuals, a decision that led the state Legislature enact a civil unions bill, which Dean signed.
The matter divided neighbors and friends. Letters flooded the State House. Dean was pilloried by the left and right. Challengers sensed opportunity and pounced. Dean endured a brutal reelection campaign in 2000 and eked out a win, drawing just 50.5 percent of the vote. Two years later, a Republican took the office when Dean decided not to run and set his sights on the White House.
Sarah Schweitzer can be reached at schweitzer@globe.com
