As governor McNichols championed an improved system of school financial aid distribution and successfully lobbied for an increased university faculty salary cap. McNichols also advocated institutional reform for the State Hospital in Pueblo and State Penitentiary in Cañon City, both organizations fraught with corruption and aging structures. McNichols pushed public works projects securing federal funding for his long-range highway development program and seeing that the Fryingpan-Arkansas water development project was begun. He was also instrumental in the development of the Colorado State Archives and the governorship grew from a two to a four-year term during his administration. To pass this tremendous package of legislation McNichols often alienated members of his own Democratic Party, and to pay for it he lobbied for an unpopular tax hike. Furthermore, McNichols' Fryingpan - Arkansas water diversion project caused friction between the Western Slope and Front Range regions. Another source of contention was McNichols' acceptance of the Executive Residence from the Boettcher Foundation. Many legislators disagreed with this decision and believed that it showed McNichols to be arrogant and power-hungry. Ironically, the same package of legislation that got him elected to the governorship in 1956 brought him defeat in his 1962 reelection campaign. Later life and death McNichols' defeat at the polls continued with an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1968, serving as a Democratic National Committee member, or as the Rocky Mountain Regions U.S. Commerce Director in 1977. His public service came to an end on November 25, 1997 when he died due to heart failure. Governor Roy Romer said of McNichols, "I served in the state legislature during his tenure as governor and remember well his character, unique style and commitment to Colorado...He was one of our best governors, in an important time in our history." Notes References External links The Governors of Colorado The Governor Stephen McNichols Collection at the Colorado State Archives |- |- |- |- 1914 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American politicians Colorado lawyers Democratic Party Colorado state senators Columbus School of Law alumni Democratic Party governors of Colorado Military personnel from Colorado Politicians from Denver Regis University alumni United States Coast Guard personnel of World War II 20th-century American lawyers