PAUL TAGLIABUE

TAGLIABUE--Paul John. November 24, 1940-November 9, 2025. Paul Tagliabue never equated leadership with dominance nor decency with weakness. In a world that rewards noise and bravado, he recognized listening as the tool with which to draw others towards reason and consensus and ultimately to build great accomplishments together. Born at home in Jersey City, New Jersey, on November 24, 1940, Paul John Tagliabue was one of four sons in an Italian immigrant family. He attended Georgetown University on a basketball scholarship and graduated in 1962 as team captain and president of his senior class, embodying the Jesuit values of intellect and service. He was a Rhodes Scholar finalist and attended New York University School of Law on a Root- Tilden scholarship, graduating in 1965. His first employment after law school was as clerk for Judge Oscar H. Davis at the United States Court of Claims in Washington, D.C. In 1966, Tagliabue began working in the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense as a policy analyst for international security matters. Influenced by mentors in both offices, he retained a global perspective and a forward- looking strategic sense throughout his career. Tagliabue received the Civilian Meritorious Service award when he left the Pentagon in 1969 to join the law firm of Covington & Burling. Tagliabue served many clients during the next two decades, taking pro bono cases promoting racial equity alongside his corporate antitrust work. Having worked on NFL matters since the beginning of his Covington career, by the 1980s he was chief outside counsel to NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle on matters ranging from player relations to competition from rival leagues, as well as litigation. When Rozelle announced that he was ending his 29-year career as commissioner, team owners decided after an intensive six- month search that Tagliabue was the right person to succeed him in Octobe 1989. Tagliabue had a long list of successes in labor peace and business development during his 17 years as commissioner. His tenure also included the challenges of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, when he made the decision to postpone a weekend of games, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when he insisted on the New Orleans Saints remaining in place in their city and eventually returning to the repaired Superdome. Both decisions were rooted in empathy for the people affected by the national tragedies and a strong sense of the place of sports in communities an community-building. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020. After stepping down as Commissioner in 2006, Tagliabue returned to Covington & Burling as senior counsel. He also returned to his alma mater by joining the Georgetown University Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2018, including six years as its chair. In that role, Tagliabue was a trusted advisor to university leadership. His work was pivotal in the construction of the Regents Hall Science Center (2012) and the John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletic Center (2016). He was also instrumental in the creation of a Georgetown campus in Qatar. Tagliabue was a longtime advocate for the LGBTQ community. As part of his effort to promote diversity at the NFL, he and his wife led through example by speaking openly and proudly about their own family. He advocated fiercely for passage of the successful marriage equality initiatives in Maryland and Maine, offering not only moral but critical financial support. In 2008 he encouraged Georgetown to open the LGBTQ Resource Center, the first of its kind at a Catholic institution. Tagliabue and his wife later created an endowment for the Tagliabue Initiative for LGBTQ Life: Fostering Formation and Transformation, which provides programmatic support through the LGBTQ Resource Center. A second endowment created the Paul J. (C'62) and Chandler M. Tagliabue Distinguished Professor in Interfaith Studies and Dialogue. The Tagliabues' financial commitment to Georgetown also supported the McCourt School of Public Policy and the Georgetown University Capitol Campus, as well as the Twenty-First Century Curriculum of the School of Foreign Service in honor of granddaughter Laura Rockefeller SFS'22. Funds were also donated to various research areas at Georgetown University Medical Center, to need- based undergraduate scholarships, and to scholarships for student-athletes. After leaving the Georgetown Board in 2018, Tagliabue began his tireless efforts to promote improvements to the security of the American electoral process. He worked extensively with both Leadership Now and Make Every Vote Count to help ensure passage of the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022. The value of inclusion that guided Tagliabue's focus on LGBTQ work and on the promotion of democracy also led him to deep involvement with two schools for children with special needs: the Phillips School for Contemporary Education in Annandale, Virginia, and The Gillen Brewer School in New York City. During his career Tagliabue helped to lead the RISE coalition of sports organizations, the National Urban League, and the United Way of America. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Tagliabue died at home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on the morning of Sunday, November 9, following an aortic dissection in June compounded by more than a decade of Parkinson's disease. His immediate survivors include his wife of 60 years Chandler ("Chan"), son Drew Tagliabue (Mark Jones), daughter Emily Rockefeller and grandchildren Laura, Sophia, and John Rockefeller; foreign-exchange daughters Paivi Orpana (Finland) and Perrine Sherwood (France); and brothers Charles, Robert (Mary deQuevedo) and John (Paula Butturini). He is preceded in death by his parents, Charles Joseph and Mary Clotilde Tagliabue, and by sister-in-law Arlene Tagliabue. In lieu of flowers, donations in his honor can be made to Georgetown University and designated towards the Georgetown Scholars Program (GSP) for first-generation and low-income students, the LGBTQ Resource Center, or the Fund a Fellow for Parkinson's program at Georgetown University Medical Center. There will be a gathering of friends and family on Sunday, November 23, 2025 from 6:00pm - 9:00pm at Joseph Gawler's Sons: 5130 Wisconsin Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20016 - followed by a funeral service on Monday, November 24, 2025 at 12:00 noon at St. Columba's Episcopal Church: 4201 Albemarle Street Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20016.