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Clem Roy, one of the biggest characters in a Capitol building full of characters, died Tuesday at Hartford Hospital after suffering from brain cancer.
Roy, a 64-year-old Republican, had been laughing and joking in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford only four weeks ago, but the fast-moving cancer had confined him over the past week?to the Harry Gray cancer center at the hospital.
"No guy enjoyed life more than Clem every day - every single day,'' said former state Republican chairman Richard Foley. "Always had a story. Always had a joke. How many ways can you say unique? One of?a kind.''
A fun-loving, casino-gambling, cigar-smoking, golf-playing?tobacco lobbyist,?Roy enjoyed providing?anecdotes about his various and frequent?trips to the?casinos.
"He was a man about town,'' said Foley, who first met Clem when Foley was serving as a Republican legislator in January?1983. "He drank deeply from the cup of life. ... He knew restaurants. He knew bars - everywhere in America.''
In trying to get another casino in Connecticut, Foley worked for casino kingpin Donald Trump. He recruited Roy and his longtime lobbying partner, H. Craig LeRoy, for the effort with Trump, but their efforts were?unsuccessful.
Once news spread about Roy's cancer, a steady stream of legislators and friends poured into his hospital room. Former Gov. John G. Rowland was there. Former Senate Republican leader Louis DeLuca and his wife came, too. House Republican leader Larry Cafero arrived on Thursday?before hurrying?back to the Capitol to vote.
A proud Vietnam veteran, Roy also talked often about his days during the war and how the fighting had spilled over into Laos in the 1960s. But he did not talk?much about the details.
"He was pretty much frontline in Vietnam,'' said Rep. Stephen Dargan, a veteran West Haven Democrat who knew Roy for 21 years. "He would not talk too much about that. It's ironic that he passed on the day after Memorial Day.''
Legislators and lobbyists were shocked by the speed of spreading cancer.
"He didn't have any symptoms,'' said Dargan, who visited Roy in the hospital on Thursday and spoke to him by telephone on Friday. "It's a sad day at the Capitol. Sometimes they say we're a big, dysfunctional family, but we still have feelings. He was quite the character. He really had a soft heart for people. He lived life to the fullest.''
As a lobbyist for Philip Morris, Roy was well paid through the years. In 2000, the firm of Roy and LeRoy was paid an annual retainer of $184,000 by the tobacco giant - one of the largest retainers of any firm at the Capitol at the time.
They also lobbied for years for the Connecticut Judges Association, including occasional battles to ensure that a judge was reappointed for another term to the bench by the General Assembly. In 2000, they fought for Superior Court Judge David L. Fineberg, an Avon Republican whose salary and $70,000 annual pension were on the line amid criticism of his actions in a high-profile murder trial in Litchfield that ended with the acquittal of John Tyler Fuessenich. The family of homicide victim James B. Irwin complained bitterly about the results in the 1995 trial, and family members spoke against Fineberg's reappointment during an emotional hearing on his reappointment.
But both the House and Senate, after lobbying by Roy and LeRoy, approved Fineberg's reappointment.
They also lobbied for a pay hike for judges in a behind-the-scenes move because judges want to be discreet when asking for additional pay.
For those who did not know him, Roy could sometimes appear to be quiet and standoffish. But if you knew him, once he started talking, it was often difficult to stop him.
He is survived by his brother, Fred, of Bristol and at least two sisters.
Further details are at http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/c-op-rennie-lobbyist-secret-clem-roy-20110529,0,6919226.column?and http://twitter.com/#!/search/clem%20roy
(In the March 29, 2001 file photo, Clem Roy, left, and Craig LeRoy, right, lobbyists with the firm of Roy and LeRoy, strategize from their usual window table in the cafeteria at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford with Grace Nome, the late president of the Connecticut Food Association, who is not pictured. Photo by Kristen Schmid/The Hartford Courant).
Source: http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2011/05/clem-roy-64-dies-of-brain-canc.html
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