Harold Hestnes, Influential Advisor to Business and Political Leaders
Harold Hestnes, accomplished lawyer and civic leader, died January 19, 2019 at age 82 in Lincoln, Massachusetts, with his family by his side. The oldest of two children, he was born in Oslo, Norway, the son of Harald, secretary to the Prime Minister of Norway, and Adelheid (Dahl) Hestnes, an opera singer. Mr. Hestnes and his parents emigrated to Massachusetts in 1940, shortly before the Nazi invasion of Norway.
Throughout his life, Mr. Hestnes was renowned as a big-picture strategist and facilitator who genuinely loved people and channeled his talent for networking and his command of varied subjects into his extensive contributions as a lawyer, business leader, civic figure, and philanthropist.
A Harvard College graduate who earned his law degree from Boston College Law School in 1961—as well as a masters in law from Harvard Law School and a masters in public administration from what is now Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government—Mr. Hestnes came into his own in a time before the legal profession turned to specialization. A gifted communicator with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, Mr. Hestnes was the ultimate generalist in an era suited to his interests.
Mr. Hestnes began his career in 1961 as counsel to Massachusetts Governor John A. Volpe, after which he joined the Boston-based law firm Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale) in 1963. There, he developed a general litigation practice with an emphasis on public law issues, particularly antitrust and regulatory matters affecting the oil, gas, and electric power industries. Colleagues credit Mr. Hestnes with establishing the energy practice at the firm, demonstrating a remarkable knowledge of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the detailed operations of the industry.
“Harold was lead counsel on some of the most complex antitrust, patent and regulatory cases of his time,” says retired WilmerHale partner Jack Regan. “Known for his intelligence and strategic sense, and his combination of business judgment and courtroom skills, Harold was sought out by leading companies in Greater Boston to handle their most important and sensitive matters.” Among Mr. Hestnes’s achievements was his role as lead counsel to a leading manufacturer of golf products in one of the largest early patent cases tried in Boston federal district court—a case that escalated into one of the first industry-wide patent litigations and was resolved due to his negotiating prowess.
Mr. Hestnes will perhaps be best remembered, however, for his influence in public administration, where he played a decisive behind-the-scenes role in many of the most significant public policy issues to arise in Massachusetts and the City of Boston over four decades.
Operating at the highest level of the state’s legal, business, and political worlds, Mr. Hestnes was a two-time chairman of the “Vault”—also known as the Boston Coordinating Committee—a private committee of Boston’s top business executives that drove fiscal and policy issues in the city until the mid-’90s. Mr. Hestnes also served as chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, director and secretary of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, and chairman of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
Through his public interest commitment, Mr. Hestnes left an indelible mark on matters as varied as health care, the Big Dig Central Artery project, energy, transportation policy, and municipal finance. Initially a vocal critic of the Boston underground Central Artery-third harbor tunnel project due to his concerns about fiscal management, he ultimately joined the Artery Business Committee in 1988 as an ex-officio member in order to help promote a positive business climate in Boston during the Big Dig. His enthusiasm for detail prompted him to travel to Rome, Italy to explore a new form of underground digging so that the latest technology could be incorporated into the project—leading to a change in the Big Dig project specifications to include updated boring techniques that were later used to build the Ted Williams Tunnel.
Mr. Hestnes’s ethic of service was deeply felt in Weston, Massachusetts, where he had lived since 1964 and served on the Weston Board of Selectmen for sixteen years, including nine years as chairman. He also served on the boards of MassINC, the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society, and CareGroup, the corporate parent of a group of local hospitals including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He was also an international council member at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
The National Law Journal named Mr. Hestnes to its list of the 100 most influential lawyers in America in 1985 and 1991, citing his leadership in the Vault, as well as his role on various nonprofit boards—and his stature in the Republican Party.
Mr. Hestnes wielded significant influence in national and local politics, serving as Massachusetts vice chairman of George H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign and as a member of Bush’s state finance committee, national steering committee and national finance committee. Mr. Hestnes was also a mentor and supporter of Governor William Weld, encouraging Weld to run for governor, working on his 1989 gubernatorial campaign, and serving as his principal advisor on fiscal affairs.
Although a staunch Republican, Mr. Hestnes was an exemplar of a gentler political era, espousing a characteristic fairness and generosity illustrated by his friendship with Paul P. Brountas, who served as campaign chairman for Governor Michael Dukakis while working with Mr. Hestnes at Hale and Dorr.
His magnanimity was also on display closer to home. In the summer of 2004, baseball fans and Little League players in Weston, fatigued by the Boston Red Sox’s 86-year losing streak, had started to defect from the Red Sox to the Yankees. The Boston Globe reported that droves of Weston’s school children were “trading in their red socks for pinstripes.” When the 15-member board that controls Weston’s Little League voted to ban “Yankees” as a team name in order to stem the traitorous tide, Mr. Hestnes—himself a diehard Red Sox fan—disagreed with the decision. "It seems rather strange to deprive kids of the ability to relate to a winner, which is what the Yankees have been," he told the Globe.
Friends and colleagues remember Mr. Hestnes as witty, compassionate, selfless, energetic, and—above all—a consummate communicator. “He was the quintessential people person,” says WilmerHale Senior Counsel Bob Keefe. “He genuinely liked people and everybody liked him.” Always eager to help anyone who crossed his path, Mr. Hestnes was as generous with his time and advice to younger lawyers as he was with his commercial clients and the many high-level government officials, academic leaders, and nonprofit executives who sought him out.
“There seemed to be no issue or need—public or individual—that Harold wasn’t ready, willing and able to tackle,” says Regan. Fellow lawyers remember Mr. Hestnes getting on the phone to locate the right surgeon for a staff member with a medical issue, taking junior lawyers to No Name Restaurant for a stress-relieving break, and tapping his endless list of contacts to help others solve problems or achieve their goals.
“Harold never hesitated to pick up the phone, and when he picked up the phone everybody answered,” adds Burke. “He had friends everywhere—from political figures to sports stars to opera singers, and even the Massachusetts State Police.” Friends and acquaintances recall Mr. Hestnes always at the center of a group, whether enjoying his customary Saturday morning breakfast at Ye Olde Cottage Restaurant in Weston or regaling his fellow lawyers with stories at regular lunch gatherings in the WilmerHale cafeteria in downtown Boston.
“On any given day, Harold probably had more significant experiences than most of us have in our entire lives,” says Keefe.
Mr. Hestnes’s affinity for people was matched only by his list of avid interests, which included the arts, hockey, sailing, Mercedes cars, travel, and his farms in Weston and Brownsville, VT, where the family pursued its passion for horses and Mr. Hestnes served on the board of the Green Mountain Horse Association and the Vermont Historical Society. Mr. Hestnes supported numerous philanthropic organizations, with contributions that were generous and widespread, but always done quietly and without fanfare, so that the focus remained on the needs of the charity and not his role in addressing them.
Surviving him are his wife of 59 years Elizabeth Forssell Hestnes of Weston, MA and Brownsville, VT; daughter Judith of Portsmouth, RI; son Erik of New York, NY; sister Anne Marie Harris and brother-in-law Vern Harris of Taftsville, VT; brother-in-law Peter Forssell and sister-in-law Mary Forssell of Boston, MA and Block Island, RI; and many nieces and nephews.
A celebration of his life will be held at the First Parish Unitarian Church in Weston on Saturday, April 27 at 2:00 p.m.
Donations in his memory can be made to Care Dimensions, 75 Sylvan Street, B-102, Danvers, MA 01923.
Harold Hestnes, accomplished lawyer and civic leader, died January 19, 2019 at age 82 in Lincoln, Massachusetts, with his family by his side. The oldest of two children, he was born in Oslo, Norway, the son of Harald, secretary to the Prime Minister of Norway, and Adelheid (Dahl) Hestnes, an opera singer. Mr. Hestnes and his parents emigrated to Massachusetts in 1940, shortly before the Nazi invasion of Norway.
Throughout his life, Mr. Hestnes was renowned as a big-picture strategist and facilitator who genuinely loved people and channeled his talent for networking and his command of varied subjects into his extensive contributions as a lawyer, business leader, civic figure, and philanthropist.
A Harvard College graduate who earned his law degree from Boston College Law School in 1961—as well as a masters in law from Harvard Law School and a masters in public administration from what is now Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government—Mr. Hestnes came into his own in a time before the legal profession turned to specialization. A gifted communicator with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, Mr. Hestnes was the ultimate generalist in an era suited to his interests.
Mr. Hestnes began his career in 1961 as counsel to Massachusetts Governor John A. Volpe, after which he joined the Boston-based law firm Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale) in 1963. There, he developed a general litigation practice with an emphasis on public law issues, particularly antitrust and regulatory matters affecting the oil, gas, and electric power industries. Colleagues credit Mr. Hestnes with establishing the energy practice at the firm, demonstrating a remarkable knowledge of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the detailed operations of the industry.
“Harold was lead counsel on some of the most complex antitrust, patent and regulatory cases of his time,” says retired WilmerHale partner Jack Regan. “Known for his intelligence and strategic sense, and his combination of business judgment and courtroom skills, Harold was sought out by leading companies in Greater Boston to handle their most important and sensitive matters.” Among Mr. Hestnes’s achievements was his role as lead counsel to a leading manufacturer of golf products in one of the largest early patent cases tried in Boston federal district court—a case that escalated into one of the first industry-wide patent litigations and was resolved due to his negotiating prowess.
Mr. Hestnes will perhaps be best remembered, however, for his influence in public administration, where he played a decisive behind-the-scenes role in many of the most significant public policy issues to arise in Massachusetts and the City of Boston over four decades.
Operating at the highest level of the state’s legal, business, and political worlds, Mr. Hestnes was a two-time chairman of the “Vault”—also known as the Boston Coordinating Committee—a private committee of Boston’s top business executives that drove fiscal and policy issues in the city until the mid-’90s. Mr. Hestnes also served as chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, director and secretary of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, and chairman of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
Through his public interest commitment, Mr. Hestnes left an indelible mark on matters as varied as health care, the Big Dig Central Artery project, energy, transportation policy, and municipal finance. Initially a vocal critic of the Boston underground Central Artery-third harbor tunnel project due to his concerns about fiscal management, he ultimately joined the Artery Business Committee in 1988 as an ex-officio member in order to help promote a positive business climate in Boston during the Big Dig. His enthusiasm for detail prompted him to travel to Rome, Italy to explore a new form of underground digging so that the latest technology could be incorporated into the project—leading to a change in the Big Dig project specifications to include updated boring techniques that were later used to build the Ted Williams Tunnel.
Mr. Hestnes’s ethic of service was deeply felt in Weston, Massachusetts, where he had lived since 1964 and served on the Weston Board of Selectmen for sixteen years, including nine years as chairman. He also served on the boards of MassINC, the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society, and CareGroup, the corporate parent of a group of local hospitals including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He was also an international council member at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
The National Law Journal named Mr. Hestnes to its list of the 100 most influential lawyers in America in 1985 and 1991, citing his leadership in the Vault, as well as his role on various nonprofit boards—and his stature in the Republican Party.
Mr. Hestnes wielded significant influence in national and local politics, serving as Massachusetts vice chairman of George H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign and as a member of Bush’s state finance committee, national steering committee and national finance committee. Mr. Hestnes was also a mentor and supporter of Governor William Weld, encouraging Weld to run for governor, working on his 1989 gubernatorial campaign, and serving as his principal advisor on fiscal affairs.
Although a staunch Republican, Mr. Hestnes was an exemplar of a gentler political era, espousing a characteristic fairness and generosity illustrated by his friendship with Paul P. Brountas, who served as campaign chairman for Governor Michael Dukakis while working with Mr. Hestnes at Hale and Dorr.
His magnanimity was also on display closer to home. In the summer of 2004, baseball fans and Little League players in Weston, fatigued by the Boston Red Sox’s 86-year losing streak, had started to defect from the Red Sox to the Yankees. The Boston Globe reported that droves of Weston’s school children were “trading in their red socks for pinstripes.” When the 15-member board that controls Weston’s Little League voted to ban “Yankees” as a team name in order to stem the traitorous tide, Mr. Hestnes—himself a diehard Red Sox fan—disagreed with the decision. "It seems rather strange to deprive kids of the ability to relate to a winner, which is what the Yankees have been," he told the Globe.
Friends and colleagues remember Mr. Hestnes as witty, compassionate, selfless, energetic, and—above all—a consummate communicator. “He was the quintessential people person,” says WilmerHale Senior Counsel Bob Keefe. “He genuinely liked people and everybody liked him.” Always eager to help anyone who crossed his path, Mr. Hestnes was as generous with his time and advice to younger lawyers as he was with his commercial clients and the many high-level government officials, academic leaders, and nonprofit executives who sought him out.
“There seemed to be no issue or need—public or individual—that Harold wasn’t ready, willing and able to tackle,” says Regan. Fellow lawyers remember Mr. Hestnes getting on the phone to locate the right surgeon for a staff member with a medical issue, taking junior lawyers to No Name Restaurant for a stress-relieving break, and tapping his endless list of contacts to help others solve problems or achieve their goals.
“Harold never hesitated to pick up the phone, and when he picked up the phone everybody answered,” adds Burke. “He had friends everywhere—from political figures to sports stars to opera singers, and even the Massachusetts State Police.” Friends and acquaintances recall Mr. Hestnes always at the center of a group, whether enjoying his customary Saturday morning breakfast at Ye Olde Cottage Restaurant in Weston or regaling his fellow lawyers with stories at regular lunch gatherings in the WilmerHale cafeteria in downtown Boston.
“On any given day, Harold probably had more significant experiences than most of us have in our entire lives,” says Keefe.
Mr. Hestnes’s affinity for people was matched only by his list of avid interests, which included the arts, hockey, sailing, Mercedes cars, travel, and his farms in Weston and Brownsville, VT, where the family pursued its passion for horses and Mr. Hestnes served on the board of the Green Mountain Horse Association and the Vermont Historical Society. Mr. Hestnes supported numerous philanthropic organizations, with contributions that were generous and widespread, but always done quietly and without fanfare, so that the focus remained on the needs of the charity and not his role in addressing them.
Surviving him are his wife of 59 years Elizabeth Forssell Hestnes of Weston, MA and Brownsville, VT; daughter Judith of Portsmouth, RI; son Erik of New York, NY; sister Anne Marie Harris and brother-in-law Vern Harris of Taftsville, VT; brother-in-law Peter Forssell and sister-in-law Mary Forssell of Boston, MA and Block Island, RI; and many nieces and nephews.
A celebration of his life will be held at the First Parish Unitarian Church in Weston on Saturday, April 27 at 2:00 p.m.
Donations in his memory can be made to Care Dimensions, 75 Sylvan Street, B-102, Danvers, MA 01923.
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