Lewis B. Rome

1933 - 2015

Lewis B. Rome, attorney, former mayor of Bloomfield, state senate leader, gubernatorial candidate, and chairman of the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees during an exceptional period of UConn's growth, died July 1, 2015, at the age of 81, after a long illness.

Rome's wife Kristine (Payne) Rome predeceased him in 2011. He is survived by his brother, Nathan Rome, better known as Scott and sister-in-law Judith, of Bloomfield; and by sisters-in-law Helga Rome of Bloomfield and Nancy Rome of Shaker Heights, Ohio; and Kris's family, Annie, Heidi, Lloyd, and cousin George. He is also survived by his former wife, Ann Nicolle Rome, of Bloomfield; and their four children, David and wife, Stacy of West Hartford, Deborah Szabo and husband, Ronald of West Hartford; Richard and wife, Joanne of Potomac, Maryland, Thomas of New York and Hartford; daughters-in-law, Florence Rome and Sadani Rome; and his step-daughter, Meghan and husband, Chad Hill of Osterville, Massachusetts. He was predeceased by his siblings; Shirley, George, Merrill, Leonard, Janice (Shayni), and Ilene; and by a granddaughter, Samantha. A generous family man with a lifelong penchant for wit and humor, Rome is also survived by 13 grandchildren; and an extended family of cousins, nieces, nephews and all of their children and grandchildren, too numerous to list here, but who have all known him closely and grown up with his encouragement and teasing. He will always be "Pop" to grandchildren Daniel and Carrie Szabo, Mohamed Seck, Rachel Trapp, Channell and Edgar Hannibal, Karim Rome, John, Sam, and Max Rome, Isabelle Rome, and Colt and Haven Hill.

Rome's tireless devotion to people, causes and institutions that he cared deeply about and was always looking to help brought many other loved and cherished ones into the category of friends and family, including so many colleagues at Rome McGuigan, P.C., including his goddaughter, Meghan Sweeney, and at earlier legal partnerships and at the government relations firm he founded and built with other former legislators, Robert Frankel, James Kennelly and Peter Smith, now Rome, Smith and Lutz. Spanning more than five decades, Rome's career in law, government, and public service began when he returned to his hometown of Bloomfield after UConn Law School and soon formed his own general practice and the firm Rome and Case. He was inspired to go into politics by Connecticut General Life Insurance Chairman Frazar Wilde's national and international work, but he decided to run himself, when he was denied permission to open a local gym for evening basketball. He was first elected to the Bloomfield Town Council in 1970.

Born Sept. 12, 1933, in Hartford, the seventh of eight children, and the fifth son, of Albert and Celia (Sabol) Rome, he attended Frank A. Brackett Northeast School in Hartford and later Blue Hills School in Bloomfield and Bloomfield High School, graduating in the Class of 1950. He had originally intended to join the Navy after high school, and his decision to enroll at UConn was last minute. He earned his B.A. from UConn in 1954 and his L.L.B. in 1957. Rome's leadership as Bloomfield's mayor in the turbulent environment of 1965-1969 anchored that community's achievements as a model for racial harmony. The town was honored as an All-America City in 1970. As Bloomfield's mayor he was also instrumental in the development of the Capital Region Council of Governments (CRCOG), an organization started around his dining room table, with a regional approach to government solutions and collaboration across town lines. Elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 1970, he served as legislative liaison to Gov. Thomas J. Meskill as a freshman Senator, and was elected Senate Majority Leader by his peers in only his second term. He went on to serve as the Senate Minority Leader in his third and fourth Senate terms and in increasing executive leadership roles nationally with the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 1978, Gov. Ella Grasso heeded Rome's suggestion that the state of Connecticut give greater backing to Connecticut Public Radio and Connecticut Public Television, launching an entirely new dimension for those organizations. Voted by his legislative peers - in a 1978 Connecticut Magazine poll - as "first in integrity," his insistence on open government - including public access to party caucuses - earned Rome national recognition while creating a sharply new image of the way Connecticut's legislature conducted its business. Though he fell shy of winning the governorship in 1982 as the Republican candidate, Rome's spirited campaign against Democratic incumbent William A. O'Neill earned him the editorial endorsement of 59 of Connecticut's top 65 newspapers, and The New York Times, which cited his "vitality and intellect" in its own Oct. 28, 1982, endorsement paired with an endorsement of Mario Cuomo in the New York gubernatorial race. For Rome, there was no political aisle when it came to friends or community needs, and Rome has been a friend, mentor and colleague to many Connecticut attorneys and judges, and to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle, including Sens. Lieberman, Dodd, and Blumenthal and Congresswoman Nancy L. Johnson, and a number of Connecticut citizens who went on to public service careers in Washington, including high-ranking U.S. Chamber of Commerce official Thomas J. Collamore and others. Following his retirement from electoral politics, Rome applied his energies with no less fervor to the public's business as an extraordinarily committed UConn trustee, and, ultimately, as the UConn Board of Trustees chairman from 1992-1997. As a legislator, Rome had spearheaded the founding of UConn's medical school and later the expansion of the UConn Health Center in Farmington, and he served as chairman of John Dempsey Hospital throughout his years as UConn Board of Trustees chairman. But as fellow UConn trustee William R. Berkley once remarked, the university's main Storrs campus was "Lew Rome's Giverny." It had pride of place in his heart and was at once his emotional refuge and a canvas for the realization of his vision for UConn's future.

In 1995, the trustees, under Rome's guidance and legislative advocacy, unveiled UConn 2000, an ambitious plan for investment in the university's infrastructure. Alongside unprecedented physical growth during Rome's tenure as Board of Trustees chairman, the university posted unassailable gains as a research institution, in the arts, as a national basketball power in both the men's and women's game (to say nothing of the leaps forward in other UConn athletic programs), and, increasingly, it became a first choice for undergraduate study of more and more of the state's most talented homegrown scholars, thanks in part to a Nutmeg Scholarship program that was Rome's brainchild.

Never relinquishing his private legal practice, Rome was longtime counsel to the Mohegan people. Kevin P. Brown, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe, said of Rome's passing, "Lew was a cherished friend and counsel to the Mohegan people. He advised and guided Chief Sturges and the Mohegan Tribal Council through federal recognition, re-establishment of the Tribe's homeland, and development of Mohegan Sun."

The family would like to thank his wonderful caregivers; Becca, Marty, Olivia, Katherine, Bailey, and Ross Hollander who was like a brother to him. He will be missed by his dog Lola and her faithful friends, Margot and Carol.

The family will be holding a private burial service on Sunday, July 5, and a public memorial celebration of Lew Rome's life on Thursday, Aug. 20, at 2 p.m. at the Lewis B. Rome Commons Ballroom, South Campus Complex, at UConn., 626 Gilbert Road Ext. Storrs. Shiva will be observed at 16 High Hill Road, Bloomfield, on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday at sundown.

The Hebrew Funeral Association of Hartford has charge of arrangements: (860) 224-2337,

hebrewfuneral.com

The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations may be made to the "Samantha Rome Nutmeg Scholarship Fund" at The University of Connecticut, mailing address, UConn. Foundation, 2390 Alumni Drive Unit 3206, Storrs, CT, 06329-3206.