26. Aram Pothier

Aram J. Pothier (1854 – 1928) was a banker, industrialist, and politician in Rhode Island. Born in Quebec, Pothier was the first French-Canadian to become the governor of a U.S. state. He immigrated to Woonsocket, Rhode Island at the age of 18 and began his career in banking as a clerk in 1875, eventually ascending to the bank’s presidency in 1913. Pothier also helped to establish a woolen and worsted yarn industry in the Woonsocket area beginning in 1906.

He joined the Republican Party and was elected as city auditor and later mayor of Woonsocket before serving one year as lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island in 1897. He married Francoise de Charmigney in 1902 after meeting her while acting as the Rhode Island special commissioner at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. In 1908, Pothier was elected as governor of the state for the first time, serving until 1915, and then reelected in 1925, serving until his sudden and unexpected death in 1928 at the age of 74.