Jeffersonville businessman served as Under Secretary of Ag, guiding U.S. farms through credit crisis On December 13, Roland R. Vautour, 95, a longtime Jeffersonville resident, passed away peacefully with family by his side. Born to Arthur and Yvonne (King) Vautour in Berlin, N.H., on January 20, 1929, Roland enjoyed all the activities the North Country offered, including hiking, skiing and ski jumping with the Nansen Ski Club. He especially enjoyed spending time in the summers at the family camp on Cedar Pond. Having received a scholarship from the University of New Hampshire to ski and jump, Vautour graduated with a degree in business administration in 1952. At UNH, he met the love of his life, Sally Liden; they were married June 16, 1951. Vautour held a series of management roles at Montgomery Ward in New York, Connecticut and Maine, before becoming director of development for the city of Waterville, Maine. He was recruited to become Vermont’s Commissioner of Development in 1960 by governor F. Ray Keyser. During most of the 1960s, Vautour was the general manager of what was then Madonna Mountain Ski Area, now known as Smugglers’ Notch resort. During most of the 1970s, he and his wife were local business owners. Vautour was a volunteer leader in numerous community and state civic and charitable organizations. Long active in state and national politics, in 1981 Vautour was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as director of the Farmers Home Administration for Vermont, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 1986, Reagan nominated Vautour to be Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and he was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Vautour was at the center of solving the massive farm credit crisis of the 1980s, overseeing the Farmers Home Administration, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, the Rural Electrification and Telecommunications Administration and the Commodity Credit Corporation. President George H.W. Bush asked Vautour to continue in his role throughout his presidency. Vautour was a lifelong sports enthusiast, especially skiing. Being a competitive skier and jumper at UNH, he passed along his love of skiing, golf and biking to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Widowed in 2007 by the death of his wife of 56 years, Vautour is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Lawrence and Jean Vautour of Wayne, Maine; his four children, Victoria Vautour and her husband, Mark Delaney; Gregory Vautour; Andrea Sheredy; and Eric Vautour, all of Jeffersonville; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. A celebration of life…