[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 106 (Friday, July 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9610-S9611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEO B. FLAHERTY, JR.

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute a good 
friend to me and my family, and a pillar of the Connecticut legal and 
political community: Leo Flaherty of Vernon, Connecticut. Sadly, Mr. 
Flaherty recently died at the age of 75.
  Leo Flaherty was Vernon's elder statesman. For years, young attorneys 
and political aspirants in town have looked to Leo Flaherty as a role 
model and for his advice and leadership. He was respected by all who 
knew him for his integrity as a lawyer, his instincts as a politician, 
and, in general, his strong moral character.
  While remembered as possessing a great legal mind, Leo's intelligence 
was not limited to any one discipline. In 1942, he left Connecticut to 
attend Georgia Tech. A year later he received an appointment to the 
United States Naval Academy, where he was a classmate of President 
Jimmy Carter. After graduating from the Academy, he earned a degree in 
engineering from the University of Connecticut, and he worked at both 
Pratt & Whitney and Hamilton Standard.
  But despite his ventures into engineering, there was always something 
drawing him to politics. It was in his blood. His father, Leo, Sr. 
served as a Rockville city alderman and Democratic Town Committee 
Chairman--a position that Leo, Jr. held for 10 years.
  He held several positions in Rockville from tax collector to a member 
of the State Board of Education. In 1960, he became Rockville's mayor. 
The most significant accomplishment of his tenure in the mayor's office 
was managing the consolidation of Rockville with the neighboring, more 
rural town of Vernon. This was a controversial proposal, but Rockville 
had one of the worst urban poverty rates in the state, and he saw the 
merger of the two cities as key to Rockville's future prosperity.

[[Page S9611]]

  The Rockville mayor's job was eliminated upon completion of the 
merger. So, in the end, Leo Flaherty worked himself out of a job. But 
Leo Flaherty never regretted his actions because he knew that this was 
the right thing to do, not for him, but for his community.
  The final political office that he ever held was chairman of 
Connecticut's members of the Electoral College, which chooses the 
President. True to form and his principles, his first act in this 
position was to call for the elimination of the college. He always 
believed that the popular vote should prevail.
  His tenure as an attorney lasted even longer than his political 
career. Leo Flaherty earned a reputation as a lawyer who would help 
anyone. Oftentimes he found himself representing some of society's 
undesirables, but he never wavered in his belief that every individual, 
rich or poor, had certain rights and was entitled to effective legal 
representation. He never sought the high powered clients, and he never 
became a millionaire. But, as was said after his passing, Leo Flaherty 
died a rich man because he owned his soul.
  In a 1996 interview, Leo Flaherty said that he had no intention of 
retiring unless he had to. This prophecy was fulfilled. He worked until 
his body would no longer allow it, as he contracted Lou Gehrig's 
disease--a terminal degenerative nerve condition.
  Leo Flaherty was a man whom I looked up to with the highest respect 
and admiration. He will be dearly missed.

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