Max Maxfield

Max Maxfield was born February 17, 1945, in Beloit, Wisconsin, the only son of Ralph Livingston Maxfield and Vera Mabson Hall Maxfield, Wisconsin natives. He graduated from Janesville, Wisconsin, High School in 1963.

He enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for the 1963-64 school year. From 1964 through 1966 he attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

On April 1, 1967, he married Jo Maxfield-Cox in Mishicot, Wisconsin. The Maxfields became the parents of three children; Tedd M., Megan, and Greta. He lived and worked in Wisconsin and Michigan between 1968 and 1972. On November 12, 1988, Max married Gayla Jean Yester, an Ohio native, in Casper, Wyoming. This marriage brought Maxfield’s family another child, step-son Christopher Tyler.

Maxfield’s professional life has been in the public service sector. For two decades, he worked as a professional YMCA director. Gov. Mike Sullivan appointed him the director of the Wyoming Recreation Commission. With the reorganization of Wyoming state government in the 1990s, he became the first appointed director of the Wyoming Department of Commerce, a position he held for five years. During the late 1990s, he left state government and became the Executive Director of the Wyoming Make-A-Wish Foundation. He also served as a financial consultant for various non-profit agencies.

In 1998, Maxfield entered elective politics as a candidate for Wyoming State Auditor on the Republican ticket. He was elected and served two terms from January 1999 to January 2007. In 2006, he was elected Wyoming Secretary of State and was re-elected in 2010. He chose not to run for re-election in 2014.