AUGUSTA – H. Sawin Millett recognized as Maine Merchants Association’s Government Service Award Winner.

State Rep. H. Sawin Millett Jr. of Waterford, who has served Maine in local, state and federal capacities for four decades, has been unanimously selected by the board of directors of the Maine Merchants Association to receive the organization’s 2008 Government Services Award.

Millett, as well as the association’s Retailer of the Year, will be honored at the group’s 75th annual meeting on Friday Oct. 24, at the Samoset Resort in Rockport. The Retailer of the Year was to be selected by the MMA board at a late-September meeting.

The annual meeting will also feature a workshop on “Protecting Your Business from Embezzlement,” a networking reception and an awards dinner address by a representative of Carhartt, a business success story on how to compete in the global market.

“If someone were attempting to define a public servant, he or she would need to look no further than Sawin Millett,” said MMA President Andy Charles of Westbrook’s Haven’s Candies, in announcing the board selection of Millett to receive the Government Services Award. “Since being first elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1968, he has held positions of responsibility requiring great trust at all levels of government without regard to political affiliation.”

Millett served as commissioner of education in the administration of the late Gov. James B. Longley; as commissioner of financial services; associate commissioner of mental health; director of legislative operations for former Gov. John McKernan; and as senior policy adviser for former Gov. Angus King.

After an early career as a teacher, school administrator and coach, he held executive positions at the Maine School Management Association, taught at the University of Southern Maine and served as state office director for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.

At the local level, he served as a selectmen from 1964-1971 and from 1985 to 1988, and he acted as moderator for town meetings for 35-plus years. During interim periods, he has served in the Maine House of Representatives for more than 10 years.

“Rep. Millett is being recognized for his legislative as well as administrative accomplishments,” said Andy Charles. “Maine Merchants staffers who follow the state legislative process on a daily basis say that if they were limited to choosing one legislator to ask a detailed question about preparations of the state budget, it would be Sawin Millett because he is a student of the process, because asks the tough questions of department heads and colleagues alike, and because he appears to read the document line by line. The public is well served by having someone of that caliber and devotion serving on the legislature’s Appropriations Committee.” Millett is the lead Republican on the 13-member panel.

A math major at Bates College, he holds a master’s degree in education administration from the University of Maine. He has been married to Barbara Shaw Millett for more than 50 years and they have five children and 10 grandchildren.