Richard Lamm - Definition and Overview

Richard Douglas "Dick" Lamm (born 1935 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American politician and lawyer. He served three terms as Governor of Colorado as a Democrat (1975–1987) and ran for the Reform Party's nomination for President of the United States in 1996.

Lamm obtained his law degree in 1961 from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1969 Lamm joined the faculty of the University of Denver. In 1974, as a member of the Colorado Legislature, Lamm led the movement against Denver's hosting of the 1976 Winter Olympics. Denver had already been awarded the games, but the movement succeded in cutting off public funding for the games, forcing the city to cancel its hosting. Innsbruck, Austria replaced Denver as the host. Lamm was elected as Governor of Colorado later in 1974. When he left office in 1987, he was the longest serving governor of the state.

After leaving office, he has continued to speak publicly on enviromental and immigration reduction issues. In 1996 he unsuccessfully challenged Ross Perot for the nomination of the Reform Party as U.S. President. In 2004 he unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club. He serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and on the Board of Directors of the Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America (DASA). He is currently the Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies at the University of Denver. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.