Cornelius "Con" Hogan (d. 2018) was a Vermont public official who served under four governors.
Hogan grew up in New Jersey. He attended Rutgers University and received a master’s degree in government administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. [1]
Hogan's first job was as a corrections officer. [2] He moved to Vermont in 1972 for a position as deputy corrections commissioner. [1] He became full commissioner thereafter serving from 1977 through 1979. [3] He served as the Secretary for Human Services from 1991 to 1999. [1] In 2002 he ran for governor as an independent against Democrat Doug Racine and Republican Jim Douglas, garnering 10% of the vote.
After this he served on the Green Mountain Care Board from its inception in 2011 until he stepped down in 2017. [4] Through the GMCB, Hogan was one of the co-authors of the paper At the Crossroads: The Future of Health Care in Vermont in 2005. He worked in Europe on children’s health issues and wrote three professional books about health care reform. [3] He was an advocate for single-payer healthcare, saying "Every health care system has problems. Ours is wasting time on things like billing and insurance when we should be focusing on providing health care." [3]
He also had a job as executive vice president and then president/director of the Montpelier-based company International Coins & Currency. [3]
Howard Dean called Hogan "the most extraordinary public servant of our time." [5] The Vermont Community Foundation created the Con Hogan Award in 2015, a $15,000 cash prize that recognized the work of a Vermont community leader. [6] The award was given out annually until 2024. [7]
Hogan, who lived in Plainfield, Vermont, was married to Jeannette Hogan and they had two children. [4] They played in a bluegrass band together called Cold Country. [4]