Dick Ames of Jaffrey is preparing to wrap up his long career as a Democratic state legislator, after working on state issues involving ways and means, education and gaming.
It has been Ames years of service that made his friend, Tony Scholl, nominate him as the Ledger-Transcript Hometown Hero for the month of March.
“Dick Ames has represented Jaffrey in the New Hampshire State House for years of steady, thoughtful and impartial service,” Scholl said of Ames.
Before Ames, 81, was a legislator, he was a lawyer, involved with many of the same fields that would come to be a focus in his years as a lawmaker.
In one of his first tastes of public service, while still a law student at Harvard Law School, Ames became involved in a federal initiative to provide legal services to those who couldn’t otherwise afford them.
“It was energizing and fulfilling,” Ames said.
It would not be the last. In his lifetime as a lawyer, Ames has worked in both the public and private sectors, and focused often on those facing disadvantages.
“It seemed to me to be very important,” Ames said. “Our system of prioritizing the private sector was not adding up to fair outcomes for those without resources to access them.”
Ames married his wife, Heather, in 1967, a year before he graduated from law school. The couple then spent two years in the Peace Corps in the Philippines, where Ames worked on legal projects to develop cooperative systems for fisheries and sugar cane farms.
When they returned to Massachusetts, Ames worked in the Boston Model Cities Program, first as counsel and later as an administrator. When his supervisor, Paul Parks, became Massachusetts’ secretary of education under Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1975, Ames joined him.
He became the general counsel and then a manager for the Massachusetts public education and human service agencies, working there for 20 years. He then spent another 16 years as an attorney representing people with mental illness and developmental disabilities and their families, helping to codify transitions to less-restrictive care models and writing legislation regulating medication.
In private practice, he continued his focus on issues related to disabilities until he retired in 2006.
Ames joined the state legislature in 2012, and has spent most of his time in the House of Representatives in the Ways and Means committee, with a focus on tax policy. In his early terms, he was involved with proposals on gambling and casinos in the state, and he advocated for extending the interest and dividend tax to capital gains. He has also worked on legislation to reform school funding, and this year, he stepped down from the Ways and Means committee to focus on a committee dedicated to reviewing school funding.
“I’m proud of standing up on issues, and being an independent voice, working with people on both sides of the aisle,” Ames said.
Ames said when his term ends, he does not plan to run again. He intends to spend the rest of his retirement gardening and spending time with his wife.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.