Jodi Rell | |
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87th Governor of Connecticut | |
In office July 1, 2004 – January 5, 2011 |
|
Lieutenant |
Kevin Sullivan Michael Fedele |
Preceded by | John Rowland |
Succeeded by | Dan Malloy |
85th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut | |
In office January 4, 1995 – July 1, 2004 |
|
Governor | John Rowland |
Preceded by | Eunice Groark |
Succeeded by | Kevin Sullivan |
Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 107th district |
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In office January 1985 – January 1995 |
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Preceded by | David Smith |
Succeeded by | Scott Santa-Maria |
Personal details | |
Born |
Mary Carolyn Reavis June 16, 1946 Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Lou Rell (1967–2014) |
Alma mater |
Old Dominion University Western Connecticut State University |
Religion | Episcopalianism |
Mary Jodi Rell (born June 16, 1946) is an American former Republican politician and the 87th Governor of the U.S. state of Connecticut from 2004 until 2011. Rell also served as the state's 85th Lieutenant Governor, during Governor John G. Rowland's administration, until he resigned during a corruption investigation.
Rell was Connecticut's second female Governor, after Ella T. Grasso. Rell stepped down from office at the end of her term, after announcing she would not seek re-election in 2010.
Born Mary Carolyn Reavis in Norfolk, Virginia, Rell attended Old Dominion University, but left in 1967 to marry Lou Rell, a U.S. Navy pilot. The couple first moved to New Jersey, where Lou Rell took a position as a commercial airline pilot with Trans World Airlines. The family then moved to a 19th Century farmhouse in Brookfield, Connecticut in 1969. Jodi Rell later attended, but did not graduate from, Western Connecticut State University. She received honorary law doctorates from the University of Hartford in 2001 and the University of New Haven in 2004. In 2015 she received an honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from Western Connecticut State University. In her early career, she tutored and did substitute work for the Hartford Public Schools.