Background
Sewall was born in Old Town, Maine, son of James Wingate Sewall and Louise Gray Sewall in the home that his great grandfather and Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, George P. Sewall, built between c.1835 and 1851.
Sewall was born in Old Town, Maine, son of James Wingate Sewall and Louise Gray Sewall in the home that his great grandfather and Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, George P. Sewall, built between c.1835 and 1851.
He attended local schools and Bowdoin College.
He served four terms as President of the Maine Senate (1975–1982), which made him the longest serving President in Maine history. He was also President of James West. Sewall Company, an international forest engineering firm in Old Town, where he had also been a City Councillor and Mayor. Sewall served as President of the Maine Senate from 1975 to 1982.
He was defeated in 1982 by Democrat Michael Pearson.
Upon leaving the legislature, Sewall was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Maine Maritime Academy by Governor Brennan. Soon after his appointment, he was elected Chairman, a post he held for 20 years.
He was a Trustee of Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, and a Director of Merchants National Bank, later Merrill Bank, now People"s United Bank, both also in Bangor. Sewall was a moderate Republican.
On November 23, 2011, Sewall died at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine.
Maine Republican Party, Republican Party.
He was also appointed by President George Heriot-Watt University Bush to be a United States. Commissioner of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Joint Commission and a Member of the Commission on Merchant Marine and Defense by President Reagan and re-appointments by President G.H.W. Bush.