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> From: No Reply <noreply@newsmemory.com>
> Date: July 22, 2011 3:40:34 PM EDT
> To: lbmcglinchey@aol.com
> Subject: Green Gazette Article
>

> sarar@trlf.com sent you this article.
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> This is the Gazette story, I'll send the obit next
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> The Gazette 07/22/2011, Page A01
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> Cedar Rapids attorney Tom Riley dies at 82
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> By Steve Gravelle
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> The Gazette
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> CEDAR RAPIDS - Tom Riley, 82, the Cedar Rapids native who left his mark on Iowa politics and law over a half-century, died Thursday at his home. 'He wasn't afraid to take on a fight or take a position,' son Peter Riley said. 'I just found him to be real outspoken, feisty champion of the people,' said Steve Ridge of Cedar Rapids, who as a teen ager was a volunteer driver for Tom Riley's unsuccessful bid for Congress.
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> Ridge, who remained a close friend, said Riley 'ran as a Republican, but he was clearly what I would describe as a maverick Republican who was not
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> ► RILEY, PAGE 9A
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> Tom Riley
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> Died Thursday
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> Article Continued Below
> See RILEY on Page A09
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> Riley/Remedied political injustice
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> ► FROM PAGE 1A
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> bound by political lines.' Before his congressional bid, Riley served two state House terms and one in the Senate, 1960 through 1968.
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> Peter Riley recalled his father's efforts to reform the way legislative seats were distributed didn't endear him to Republican leaders. Iowa's nine largest counties were apportioned two legislators apiece, while the other 90 each received one - leaving more than half the state's population represented by just 18 legislators.
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> 'That made it almost impossible to accomplish things for the urban interests, but it was favored by the Republicans,' Peter Riley said.
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> Tom Riley's challenge to that system went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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> Despite their differences in party and background, 'I'd march for somebody like that regardless of what party they're from,' said State Senate President Jack Kibbie, a Democrat and farmer from Emmetsburg who served with Tom Riley in the state House.
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> 'He was a statesman in many ways, trying to get people to work together.
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> He was pro-Iowan and pro-education,' Kibbie said.
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> 'I enjoyed him very much.' Born in Cedar Rapids in January 1929, Riley graduated from then-Franklin High School.
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> After earning his bachelor and law degrees at the University of Iowa, he was commissioned a lieutenant and judge-advocate general in the Air Force, where assignments in the South exposed him to the condition of African-Americans in the pre-civil rights era.
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> 'When he saw injustice, it didn't matter where he saw (it) - he was ready to tackle anyone and anything,' Ridge said.
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> 'It's helping underdogs hold the powerful accountable,' Tom Riley said in a 1997 interview.
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> 'I began practice with a 'silk stocking' law firm that represented insurance companies and other vested interests. It's more gratifying to advance the cause of widows and orphans than it is to oppose their claims. The former appreciate your services more, too.' In 1980, Tom Riley and Peter Riley, then just out of law school, started the Tom Riley Law Firm. The firm now has seven attorneys, including Tom Riley's daughter, Sara Riley, in offices in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.
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> Just months after opening its doors, the Riley firm took on Procter & Gamble. In 1982, the firm won a verdict against the consumer-goods multinational on behalf of the family of Patricia Kehm, a Cedar Rapids woman who died from toxic-shock syndrome caused by the company's Rely tampon.
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> 'We were the first ones to get a verdict, so we ended up handling hundreds of toxic shock cases all over the country,' said Todd Becker, the firm's third attorney. 'He was smart, he was aggressive, and in addition to those two things he would outwork the other side.
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> It was routine for him to work 80 or 90 hours a week.' That continued through the late 1990s, but even within the past decade Riley worked up to 50 hours a week, Becker said.
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> Riley wrote four books and many articles on law and politics.
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> An avid collector, Riley supported the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, endowed scholarships at Kirkwood Community College and Coe College, and sponsored exhibits at The Carl and Mary Koehler History Center and the African American Museum of Iowa. In 1996, he and his wife, Nan, donated 21 Roman portrait busts to the museum. The busts of emperors, commoners and deities now anchor the museum's permanent exhibit, 'Art in Roman Life.' Museum Executive Director Terry Pitts said Riley 'had a passion for the arts and he loved to share his passion and to see others become as excited and enthused as he was.' 'He was proud of Cedar Rapids and of knowing that some of the great works of Roman art that he and Nan had once owned are now part of the community,' Pitts said.
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> 'He was a friend to everyone at the Museum of Art and we'll miss the twinkle in his eye whenever he was here.' (obituary, 8A)
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> ■ Comments: (319) 398-5819; steve.gravelle@sourcemedia.net
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> 'He was ready to tackle anyone and anything.'
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> Steve Ridge, volunteer for Tom Riley's bid for Congress
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