Meet the Commission

Mr. Lepper received his undergraduate degree (BA) from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio.
He graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1959 with a concentration in Southeast Asian Studies. He then taught for two years at the University of Tampa in Florida before returning to the DC area to work on his Ph.D. at Georgetown University. In 1965 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship that allowed him to travel to the Philippines where he collected data for his dissertation entitled, “Philippine Student Politics: with Special Emphasis on the University of the Philippines.” Upon return, Mr. Lepper taught at Providence College and completed his dissertation, receiving his Ph.D. in 1971.

He then became Vice President of a family owned manufacturing business. Living in his home town, Attleboro, Massachusetts, he became interested in state and local politics. After serving on the city’s planning board for one year, in 1986 he was elected to the Attleboro Municipal Council and served seven years. His most important responsibilities were as Chairman of the Public Safety Committee and Chairman of the Finance Committee during the economic downturn in 1990 and 1991.

In 1994 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representative, retiring at the end of his seventh term in December 2008. He served six years on the Ways and Means Committee rising to the position of ranking minority member and was appointed to the Budget Conference Committee in 2001 and 2002.

He also served several years on the Joint Committee on Children and Families and People with Disabilities. He focused on passage of what was known as the “ABC law” (Access to Birth Certificates) that allowed adopted people to obtain their original birth certificate without a court order. He also filed legislation to establish the Commission on the Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. He and his wife were raising grandchildren and understood from personal experience the many challenges facing people in that role.

The Commission came into existence as the result of legislation passed in 2008. Mr. Lepper was elected chairman of the Commission, serving in that position until this year. During his tenure, the Commission established a webpage (www.massgrg.com) to assist grandparents in obtaining current, accurate information on governmental services and helped expand the number of grandparent support groups throughout the Commonwealth. In 2016, the Commission sponsored legislation to provide indigent grandparents with a right to legal counsel and toured the State in cooperation with the Attorney General’s Office to explain programs available to assist kinship caregivers dealing with the effects of the opioid crisis.

Mr. Lepper voted in favor of one of the most important pieces of legislation to come before the Legislature during his tenure. That was the 2006, “Act to Provide Access to Affordable, Quality, Accountable Healthcare, otherwise known as Romney-care, precursor to the Federal Affordable Care Act. He did so knowing how important this legislation was for securing healthcare coverage for children being cared for by grandparents and other kinship caregivers.

Mr. Lepper was recognized by the Massachusetts Municipal Association as “Legislator of the year” in 2004, and by the Attleboro Chamber of Commerce as “Person of the Year” in 2008.
In 2016 he received a Gubernatorial Citation for, “many years of dedicated service advocacy and support for grandparents raising grandchildren and other kinship caregivers across The Commonwealth.” He was a 2017 recipient of the Johns Hopkins University’s Woodrow Wilson Award, “honoring alumni who have brought credit to the university by their current or recently concluded distinguished public service as elected or appointed officials”. He currently is an Adjunct Professor at Bristol Community College.