Haskell graduated from the University of Maine with an engineering degree in 1925.

On January 2, 1959, outgoing Governor Edmund Muskie resigned before the end of his term to take his seat in the United States Senate.

Haskell was sworn in as Governor to fill the five-day period until the inauguration of Clinton Clauson.

Haskell then left politics, but continued to lead the Bangor Hydro-Electric Company, as well as serving as a bank board chairman and a trustee of the University of Maine.

He was not closely related to Nathaniel M. Haskell, who had served a brief term six years before as Maine's Governor due to being Senate President.