John "Jack" GERAGHTY Jr.

John (Jack) Vincent Geraghty Jr., passed away peacefully at home with his loving family by his side singing to him, "Somewhere over the rainbow" on Thursday, December 7, 2023, a few months short of his 90th birthday. Jack was the proud patriarch of a large Irish Catholic family and was a loving husband to his wife, his daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. He was pleased when he recently learned that his oldest grandson was engaged, and another grandson would soon be welcoming his first child.

Jack's huge smile and great laugh were always present at family gathering at the lake, when donning his cowboy hat with his girls at their Montana cabin and at daily lunches with his brother and spirited group of friends. He loved, loved Husky football, had season tickets for years and enjoyed sailgating to Husky Stadium. He especially liked watching this year while snuggling his buddy Seamus. Go Dawgs!

Jack always took the time on Sunday to read obituaries and comment, not on the person's accomplishments, but the stories of how they lived their lives. His familiar refrain was that there have been many stories about his public life and that Wikipedia was created to tell that story. He wanted people to know the man behind the microphone.

Jack was the oldest of five. His early years were spent living with his parents in his grandfather's home across from Bing Crosby's in the Gonzaga neighborhood. His beloved grandfather, James, emigrated from Belmullet, Ireland, when he was 10, drove a beer truck for Galland Brewery and Malting Co., while studying law at night. He passed away while serving as a Justice in the Washington State Supreme Court when Jack was 6. One of Jack's favorite early memories was waking up to the comforting cigar smell that meant his grandfather was home.

Jack wanted to attend Gonzaga High School but his parents, John and Gladys, had attended North Central and wanted their oldest to follow in their footsteps. This began his strong commitment to public education with service on the BOT at Eastern for 12 years. He made his mark at NC as editor, writer, and producer of the North Central News and all his life started his day with his newspaper. In recent years, every Saturday upon waking up he would loudly lament the lack of a printed Saturday paper!

He began his lifelong love of the University of Washington and his Dawgs as a reporter for the "Daily." After graduating with a degree in journalism and, while attending law school, he served as president of the student body. He did an internship at the "Shelton Mason County Journal" and reconnected with his old buddy, Jim Ray. The two Irishmen met at a wild convention of student body presidents and became life-long friends, despite being polar opposites on the political spectrum.

Jack worked as a reporter at the Spokane Daily Chronicle and recently enjoyed telling stories while looking at a scrapbook of clippings of his days covering city hall, the courthouse, and the police. He went on to serve in two branches of the military ending his service as a Captain in the Air National Guard. His vivid stories about flying around in a DC3 "Gooney Bird" piloted by former "hump" pilots made you feel like you were riding along beside him.

At age 29 his interest in politics reared up again and he organized an enthusiastic group called "50 Young Men for Geraghty" and defeated a long-time commissioner. He was reelected four years later and always said it was because he and fellow (D) Commissioner and mentor, Bill Allen, were able to carefully

craft the consolidation of both health and public safety services. Until he was elected mayor, he would always smile when he was called "commish."

In 1971, King Cole and future business partner, Dick Hoover, talked him into resigning from the commission to take on several different roles with the Expo '74 World's Fair. Jack was a true Irish Seanchai (storyteller) and many of them were about the three years leading up to the Fair opening. He said many times it seemed impossible but they all prevailed and it radically changed the face of downtown and Spokane forever. As Vice President of Exhibitor and Guest Relations he often gave private tours, his most memorable were walking around with Governor Jimmy Carter and Rosalyn, family favorite Bing Crosby, and President Richard Nixon and Pat after the opening ceremonies and navigating around the sign-waving protesters.

In the ensuing years, Jack started his newspaper, "The Falls", his firm, Jack Geraghty and Associates, and later, Alliance Pacific, Inc. with partners that included his future wife, Kerry Lynch.

Politics pulled at his heart strings when at 59 he decided to run for mayor, in spite of the endless doorbelling involved, and in 1993 was overwhelmingly elected Spokane's 38th Mayor. He successfully served from 1994–1997 appearing weekly on city cable 5. People always remarked about his statesmanship, demeanor, smarts, passion for Spokane, and his communication skills. He insisted on writing his own speeches and press releases. He started the yearly "State of the City" mayoral addresses and insisted they be televised for the people. Jack was very excited about getting his first laptop computer until it was stolen out of his mayor's office. During the infamous ice storm and later city hall bombing he was always there to "talk to the people". Jack was proud of honoring his campaign pledge to give neighborhoods a voice. He worked closely with then Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes to start neighborhood councils throughout Spokane and later the public-private partnership that strengthened and saved our downtown core. He always said that doing the right thing was more important than worrying about the next election. In later years, he proudly told people who didn't recognize him that, "I used to be your mayor."

He always enjoyed his yearly talks with future leaders selected by Leadership Spokane. His theme was always civility, communication, and the lost art of listening. At age 82, Jack suddenly pushed away from his office computer and said that he done working but continued to "advise" his wife daily. Over the past 13 years, he enjoyed mentoring and providing sage political advice to Ben Stuckart, the "son he never had", spending time with family, sailing and traveling.

Jack loved to play golf and was proud of his long drive. He played city courses especially Downriver, where he had spent many summers as a night time groundskeeper. He was an avid sailor and enjoyed being a member of the Cougar Bay Sailing and Chowder Society. He and Kerry spent their weekends sailing on their Gaelic Mistral and he enjoyed sailing with family. Kerry and other family members never got used to his occasional accidental gybe. He enjoyed his Jameson's but only drank Pusser's Rum, Navy grog, when sailing. He looked forward to Kerry's work trips to Seattle over the past eight years and staying at their downtown Seattle condo overlooking the ferry docks. Upon arrival, Jack immediately took a glass of Jameson's to his telescope to look for the transoms of container ships to see where they originated. He also never missed making sure the mayor's office continued the tradition of flying the Irish tri-color flag over city hall during Irish Week.

Mayor Jack was proud to be a third generation Irish American and instilled that love of his heritage in his daughters. Jack was a founding board member of the Spokane Limerick Sister City Society with his dearest friend, the late Maureen Peterson, Jim Ray and his wife Kerry. Jack and Kerry served together on the board for 33 years. In his role as Chairman of the BOT at Eastern, he led a delegation to Limerick that included the university president and his 85-year old father. He signed paperwork twinning Eastern with the University of Limerick. His father started his trip to Ireland wearing a large button that read, "World's Greatest Irishman," that kept noisily delaying his way through security. Jack enjoyed recounting the story with his natural sounding Irish accent of how the button attracted the attention of a local occupying a bar stool. He sauntered over and asked his dad if he was "prepared to defend the title"-the button was never seen again!

One of his greatest joys, besides his family, was when he and Kerry received their Irish passports a few days before St. Patrick's Day in 2018. He immediately tried to use his at Spokane International on their next trip to Limerick. The ticket agent looked at him surprised and a little shocked and asked Jack how he could have served as mayor if he wasn't a US citizen. Jack and Kerry were able to travel extensively to Ireland and helped host official delegations from Limerick. The most recent was a visit to Spokane in May that included a visit by Jack's long-time friend, former Limerick Mayor and City County Councillor Kieran O'Hanlon, to their home to play the tin whistle together. Kieran was impressed when Jack pulled his whistle out of the top of his Irish walking stick. Jack was also part of a UW river cruise ending at the 75th commemoration of D Day. As mayor, he led a trade mission to Japan and he and Kerry were guests of the Mayor of Hiroshima as they emotionally walked through the museum and laid flowers at the Peace park.

Jack was proud and humbled by the many honors he received that included induction into the first class of the North Central Hall of Fame and Distinguished Alumni Award; induction into the University of Washington Hall of Fame by his dear friend, former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice in 2011; the King Cole Luminary Award; a lifetime achievement award by the Spokane County Democrats; and Parade Grand Marshall and Irish Man of the Year by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. He often bragged about being named Spokane's Best Home Chef in a rigorous contest sponsored by the Spokesman Review with his winning original recipe for Camp Jack Chicken. His recipe has appeared in numerous cookbooks and he was often stopped by people who had made it.

Jack was a born leader who served several times as President of the Eastern Board of Trustees, President of the Spokane Press Club, President of Future Spokane, President of the Spokane Community Mental Health Center Board of Trustees, President of the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Washington, President of the Manito Country Club, President of API, and President of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.

Jack was married to Marlene Curtis for over 30 years and Kerry Lynch for over 20. He used to joke about his attraction to Scorpios. He is survived by his wife, Kerry, his four daughters, Marcella Maile (Don), Sheila Geraghty (Roger), Brigid Krause (Neil), Nora Boyle (Steve), bonus daughters, Kaitlin Larson (Wes) and Meghan Gaebe (Jake). His grandchildren, Nik Krause (April), Tristan Krause (Hanna), Thomas Krause (Clancy), Curtis Maile (Caroline), Macallan, Grace, and Eva Boyle, Gaven Kiehn (Kylee), Addison and Declan Larson, Greyson and Rian Gaebe, also two great-grandchildren Cecilia and Collette Krause.

Jack was the oldest of five siblings and was pleased that all of the Geraghty Clan lived in Spokane and he could always count on their votes, He especially liked their family traditions of Christmas Round Robins

and Easter gatherings. He is survived by his "twin" Mike Geraghty (Linda), Kathleen Whitbeck, Tom Geraghty (Karen), Mary Sturm (Carl) and 19 nieces and nephews.

A celebration of his life will be held on December 20, 2023, at 11 a.m. with a funeral mass at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, 330 E. Boone Avenue, Spokane. A thank you to the Mayor and City of Spokane for honoring him with the flag at half-mast over Spokane City Hall, providing a Police Escort and Ceremonial Unit at his Memorial as well as a Spokane Fire Department Ladder Truck and Flags. A Mayoral Proclamation has been issued and will be formally presented to his family in January. His wishes were for a private internment. In lieu of flowers, Jack asked that any donations be made to the Spokane-Limerick Sister City Society, P.O. 251, Spokane, 99210. Go Raibh Suaimhneas Siorai Air (Eternal Rest Be Upon Him).