Innerviews: His golden heart bleeds politics, labor law and Ireland
Few West Virginians will monitor Tuesday's election results with more hopeful intensity than lifelong Democrat activist Pat Maroney. Along with the political identity, he's a respected labor lawyer, a reflection of his blue-collar upbringing.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Few West Virginians will monitor Tuesday's election results with more hopeful intensity than lifelong Democrat activist Pat Maroney. Former state party chairman and current Democrat national committeeman, he cut his political teeth in Cedar Grove as a boy distributing campaign literature door to door.
In high school in 1952, Pat Maroney was already interested in politics.
Along with the political identity, he's a respected labor lawyer, a reflection of his blue-collar upbringing. His father was a millwright, his grandfather a miner and union organizer.
Mementos in his Virginia Street office reflect the fervent liberalism rooted in his working-class background. An autographed poster promotes a fundraiser featuring Jay Rockefeller and Ted Kennedy for the 1972 McGovern-Shriver campaign. Photos show him rubbing elbows with political luminaries: Hillary and Bill. Byrd. Rockefeller. Wise. James Carville.
Along with politics and labor law, his "heart of gold" has room for one other great passion - a fervent love for Ireland.
"My great-grandfather came over from Ireland about 1855 and wound up in Peytona, where my father was born. They were building the locks up Coal River for the movement of coal. When they got up to the last lock, there's a place at Peytona, if you go up the hollow around Bottom Branch, it just widens, and he and my Uncle Mike bought 400 acres. Going up through there would be just like going up a glen in Ireland. It was like they were back home in County Clare.
"I grew up at Cedar Grove. My mother taught at Leewood Junior High. Dad was a millwright at DuPont and helped build the plant. There was a big interest in labor in the whole family. My grandfather was a labor organizer. As soon as the word got out, he would get blackballed and lose his job. He did that until he could never get a job anymore.
"My dad left home at age 15 and joined the Navy and stayed until he was 21. His ship was shot out from underneath him in World War I. They were in the North Sea in October in a life raft for 17 hours. He spent about a year and a half in a naval hospital. He was a machinist in the Navy. He died in 1943 when he was 54. They carried him out of the plant, and he died a day later. I was 7, and my brother was 5.
"My uncles and my aunt and my cousins were all heavily involved in politics. Politics was part of Cedar Grove history. Everybody in Cedar Grove was engaged in some fashion in politics.
"My best friend growing up was Roger Tompkins. We started first grade together and stayed through ninth grade. We were like Tom and Huck. I was Huck, and he was Tom. When I graduated from high school, one of my best friends was Tom McHugh, and Roger and Tom were good friends, so we all had mutual relationships and ideas.
"My uncle, after World War II, finally got to law school, so after I got out of Marshall and the service, I thought maybe that's what I ought to do. I started to law school in '61. I went one semester to WVU. I had three children at the time and didn't have enough money to stay there, so I transferred to American, in D.C., and worked full time during the day and went to law school at night.
"There was never a question about going into labor law. I've always been interested in working for the rights and needs of working men and women. I couldn't have worked for companies as a lawyer or been involved in cases against working families.
"I came straight back here and started working with Rudy DiTrapano. Rudy was my mentor, and my Uncle Jim was his mentor. When Rudy got out of law school, he went to work at Cabin Creek for my Uncle Jim, then started his own firm in Cabin Creek. When I got out law school, Rudy asked me to come work for him. We had offices in two major cities - Charleston and Cabin Creek. The satellite office was here in Charleston.
"Cabin Creek may be one of the most unique places in the United States. So many wonderful people came out of there. Doctors. Lawyers. Engineers. Writers. I call it the birthplace of union presidents. Three international labor union presidents were born and raised in Cabin Creek - Cecil Roberts, Arnold Miller and my cousin, Dan Maroney. Dan started here with Amalgamated, then became their international president.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Few West Virginians will monitor Tuesday's election results with more hopeful intensity than lifelong Democrat activist Pat Maroney. Former state party chairman and current Democrat national committeeman, he cut his political teeth in Cedar Grove as a boy distributing campaign literature door to door.
Along with the political identity, he's a respected labor lawyer, a reflection of his blue-collar upbringing. His father was a millwright, his grandfather a miner and union organizer.
Mementos in his Virginia Street office reflect the fervent liberalism rooted in his working-class background. An autographed poster promotes a fundraiser featuring Jay Rockefeller and Ted Kennedy for the 1972 McGovern-Shriver campaign. Photos show him rubbing elbows with political luminaries: Hillary and Bill. Byrd. Rockefeller. Wise. James Carville.
Along with politics and labor law, his "heart of gold" has room for one other great passion - a fervent love for Ireland.
"My great-grandfather came over from Ireland about 1855 and wound up in Peytona, where my father was born. They were building the locks up Coal River for the movement of coal. When they got up to the last lock, there's a place at Peytona, if you go up the hollow around Bottom Branch, it just widens, and he and my Uncle Mike bought 400 acres. Going up through there would be just like going up a glen in Ireland. It was like they were back home in County Clare.
"I grew up at Cedar Grove. My mother taught at Leewood Junior High. Dad was a millwright at DuPont and helped build the plant. There was a big interest in labor in the whole family. My grandfather was a labor organizer. As soon as the word got out, he would get blackballed and lose his job. He did that until he could never get a job anymore.
"My dad left home at age 15 and joined the Navy and stayed until he was 21. His ship was shot out from underneath him in World War I. They were in the North Sea in October in a life raft for 17 hours. He spent about a year and a half in a naval hospital. He was a machinist in the Navy. He died in 1943 when he was 54. They carried him out of the plant, and he died a day later. I was 7, and my brother was 5.
"My uncles and my aunt and my cousins were all heavily involved in politics. Politics was part of Cedar Grove history. Everybody in Cedar Grove was engaged in some fashion in politics.
"My best friend growing up was Roger Tompkins. We started first grade together and stayed through ninth grade. We were like Tom and Huck. I was Huck, and he was Tom. When I graduated from high school, one of my best friends was Tom McHugh, and Roger and Tom were good friends, so we all had mutual relationships and ideas.
"My uncle, after World War II, finally got to law school, so after I got out of Marshall and the service, I thought maybe that's what I ought to do. I started to law school in '61. I went one semester to WVU. I had three children at the time and didn't have enough money to stay there, so I transferred to American, in D.C., and worked full time during the day and went to law school at night.
"There was never a question about going into labor law. I've always been interested in working for the rights and needs of working men and women. I couldn't have worked for companies as a lawyer or been involved in cases against working families.
"I came straight back here and started working with Rudy DiTrapano. Rudy was my mentor, and my Uncle Jim was his mentor. When Rudy got out of law school, he went to work at Cabin Creek for my Uncle Jim, then started his own firm in Cabin Creek. When I got out law school, Rudy asked me to come work for him. We had offices in two major cities - Charleston and Cabin Creek. The satellite office was here in Charleston.
"Cabin Creek may be one of the most unique places in the United States. So many wonderful people came out of there. Doctors. Lawyers. Engineers. Writers. I call it the birthplace of union presidents. Three international labor union presidents were born and raised in Cabin Creek - Cecil Roberts, Arnold Miller and my cousin, Dan Maroney. Dan started here with Amalgamated, then became their international president.
"I was with Rudy one week and got to try my first law case. We had great fun. We still collaborate. His philosophical concepts about protecting people are exactly like mine. I think it came from his growing up in Eskdale. Cedar Grove was not a lot different, so we were the same kind of people. After four years with Rudy, I went out on my own.
"I started working in campaigns when I was about 12 or 13. My brother and I would deliver stuff for candidates door to door. The 1960 Kennedy campaign was the first major campaign I was involved in.
"I was involved just as a grunt. I made phone calls, stuffed envelopes, got people to go to rallies. One of my cousins from here worked for Sen. Kennedy in D.C., and she was here working on the campaign. Dan Maroney was president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local, that's Greyhound and city bus drivers. So it was kind of a family affair.
"On the day of President Kennedy's assassination, I was working in Washington. My office was on the corner of Pennsylvania and Constitution. I heard just vague reports. Then, sitting at my desk, I could see the top of the Smithsonian, and they dropped the flag to half-mast. Fifteen minutes later, they came in and told everybody to go home.
"When they moved the president's body from Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, I came back to the office and brought my kids, and we could look right down from the window and see the horse-drawn cortege. It was absolutely startling.
"When I got back from law school in '68, I was on Bobby Kennedy's campaign staff. I spent six weeks in Indiana doing advance work. I was home when Bobby got killed. I got a phone call about 5 in the morning. That kind of quelled me for a while. I was in Fort Wayne when the announcement came that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.
"You aren't as active for a while - it takes all the air out of you - but you can't give up. You've got to keep going.
"I concentrated on my law practice until 1996, when we had the second Clinton campaign and the Pritt-Manchin campaign, and I eventually became state party chairman. Joe Powell, president of the AFL-CIO, asked me to get involved. I've served as general counsel for the AFL-CIO since '72, except for a little hiatus.
"This is a very, very important election. We can't undergo four more years of what we've undergone the last eight years. I was pledged to Hillary Clinton, but now that the primary is over, I think Barack Obama is the person we need to be president. I think West Virginians are going to do what they always do in hard times - they are going to make the right decision and elect Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden.
"I've been to Ireland eight or 10 times. I had the St. Patrick's Day party for 10 or 12 years. It was not your typical St. Patrick's Day party. We never had green beer. We always had pure Guinness Stout and Harp lager, and I had to go to Pittsburgh to get it. We had entertainment brought over from Ireland. We stopped the party about 10 years ago. It may be time to do it again.
"I've loved my life, but it has taken its toll from time to time. I had a little heart surgery last year. One of the nurses said my case was a little unusual. She said, 'They found some things they hadn't seen before and had to leave you open while they got another specialist. They had to find a jeweler.' I had a heart of gold. They had not seen that ever before.
"I've had a good time doing what I've done. I don't know that I would have done anything differently, but I might have been more intense about it. I feel really good about growing up at Cedar Grove. I wouldn't trade that. I just wish I could do more and do it better. I just want things to get better. That's what I care about."
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Posted By: anniemaroney(5:00pm 01-30-2009)
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Dad is one of a kind: his heart, his mind will never be matched or trumped--he stands with the greats and has made a huge, positive difference in more lives than we can count.
Rock on Dad! We love you!
Posted By: kmaroney(7:12pm 11-04-2008)
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He does have a golden heart...I remember telling him about a girl that did not have coat that would wait for the school bus with me when I was little. Several days later he came home and wanted to know who she was and where she lived. He always taught us to help the less fortunate!
His daughter,
Kellie
Posted By: Mary Ann(6:37pm 11-03-2008)
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I knew that Pat was the subject with the title of the article. Nice story. Good man.
Posted By: Nancy Wiblin(4:12pm 11-03-2008)
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Kudos again, Sandy. I love Pat, and was glad to see his story told by you. I'm down here in Florida now, and it's good to stay in touch with old friends. I have always admired Pat (and Roger and Tom), and I am glad to see he's doing well. By the way, Pat those parties were the best. We've missed them and you and the Cassidys. If you you have another one, please don't forget your old pals. Love to all my Charleston friends. Sandy, as usual you hit a homerun for me.
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Rock on Dad! We love you!
His daughter,
Kellie