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Anthony Doria Left Mark On South Royalton

A colorful figure in Vermont history has passed away. Anthony Doria’s legacy includes founding the Vermont Law School and renovating several of the buildings around town.

But he was also a controversial public figure. Dick Drysdale, editor of the Herald of Randolph has written about Doria’s passing and spoke with VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb.  

Doria arrived in Vermont from Philadelphia in the 1960s. He was born in Italy with some noble lineage, which Drysdale says Doria, “always made the most of.”

“Out-sized personality,” is a good term to describe Doria.  

“In fact he was a crook in many ways, he only spent time for one of his crimes, but he was in trouble all the time,” Drysdale said, and the secrecy around Doria’s death is not surprising.

He died on May 23rd, and Drysdale says it was totally hush hush, and he only was able to confirm it recently, as one family member was opposed to talking about Doria’s passing.

Drysdale says Doria was only dean of the law school for about a year and a half, and his legal troubles meant that he was not held in high esteem by the school’s administration.

The story goes that a law student found out that Doria had been convicted for fraud in Philadelphia, and that lead to Doria’s departure from the school. Others say it was because of the school’s financial troubles.

Drysdale says Doria also left a legacy of unpaid taxes, debts and foreclosures, but also left the town of South Royalton with a tremendous asset, one of the best small law schools in the country.

Melody is the Contributing Editor for But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids and the co-author of two But Why books with Jane Lindholm.
A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
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