5 Ways Governor Garrahy Changed RI

5 Ways Governor Garrahy Changed RI

Well-liked former Governor J. Joseph Garrahy, who worked his way from the State Senate into a four-term tenure as Governor, died Tuesday at the age of 81.

Garrahy served as Governor from 1977-1985 and is perhaps best remembered for his leadership during the blizzard of ’78. But he was also well ahead of his time on environmental issues and cleaning up the state’s prison system and friends and former aides say his kindness made him easy to work with.

"Everybody liked him. He was a lot people say the really nice governor of any state,” said Bill Brody who served three years as executive counsel to Garrahy. “He was the nicest man that I've ever met in government. He was as good a man on the inside as he seemed on the outside. He had a personal way about him that he was able to avoid any personal differences. You wish that everyone in government could be like him and we’d have a perfect government."

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GoLocalProv breaks down five ways the Governor changed Rhode Island.

Narragansett Bay Commission

Governor Garrahy helped formed the Narragansett Bay Commission, which led to the rehabilitation of the Field’s Point facility. The Commission has since won dozens of awards and has been recognized worldwide for its efforts to treat wastewater. In 2010, New York Construction Magazine named its Combined Sewer Overflow Project “Best Civil/Public Works Project.”

Capital Center Commission

The Governor pushed for the creation of the Capital Center Commission, which brought leasers from city and state government as well as the community to help oversee the redevelopment of Providence.

Working with the Developmentally Disabled

Garrahy also took up efforts to move people out of mental institutions and to reform the Ladd School in Exeter, which is now closed. The Governor was often credited for his role in helping the developmentally disabled throughout the state.

Prison Reform

The Governor made efforts to reform the state’s prison system, including taking steps to hire more minorities. Now the J. Joseph Garrahy Judicial Complex in Providence is named after him.

Blizzard of ‘78

Of course, Garrahy’s finest hour might have come early in his tenure, when he was viewed as the flannel-shirted leader working around-the-clock to calm people down and keep them informed following one of the worst snow storms of the 20th century.

 

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