About John
Representative John W. Hetherington was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2002 from the newly redrawn 125th Assembly District, including most of New Canaan and the western portion of Wilton. He brings an extensive background in business, law and community service to the state legislature.
Rep. Hetherington is a member of the legislature’s Public Health Committee and Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee and Government Administration and Elections Committee. In 2007, he was named ranking member of the Government Administration and Elections Committee.
Until 2002, Rep. Hetherington served as vice president and secretary of MeadWestvaco Corporation, a major public company manufacturing packaging, paper and specialty chemicals, where he focused on corporate governance issues. He is the author of numerous articles published in professional journals.
Prior to that he was a litigation associate with the law firm of Dickerson & Reilly in New York from 1965 to 1967 and as an attorney with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1964 to 1965.
He is a graduate of Yale Law School with a J.D. degree in 1963 and from Yale College with a B.A. degree in 1960.
In his home community of New Canaan, he served as chair of the town’s Board of Assessment Appeals from 2000 to 2003, and was a councilman from 1989 to 1997. Earlier he was a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals.
Rep. Hetherington is the former director of United Way of New Canaan. He also has provided pro-bono volunteer legal services and served as Attorney Trial Referee and Fact Finder/Arbitrator for the Connecticut Superior Court.
In addition, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission appointed him during 1981 and 1982 to its Advisory Committee on Shareholder Communications.
Rep. Hetherington retired from the Naval Reserve as a captain in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps and served as unit commander while in the reserves.
He and Hope, his wife, have two children, a daughter, Jane, and a son, Kells.
