“A feisty champion of the people,” Tom Riley dead at 82

Tom Riley, 82, the Cedar Rapids native who left his mark on Iowa politics and law for over a half-century, died Thursday at his home.

“He wasn't afraid to take on a fight or take a position,” said son Peter Riley.

“I just found him to be real outspoken, feisty champion of the people,” said Steve Ridge of Cedar Rapids, who as a teenager was a volunteer driver for Tom Riley's unsuccessful bid for Congress.

Ridge, who remained a close friend, said Tom Riley “ran as a Republican, but he was clearly what I would describe as a maverick Republican who was not bound by political lines.”

Before his congressional bid, Tom Riley served two state House terms and one in the Senate, 1960 through '68.

Peter Riley recalled his father's efforts to reform the way legislative seats were distributed didn't endear him to Republican leaders. Iowa's nine largest counties were apportioned two legislators apiece, while the other 90 each received one – leaving more than half the state's population represented by just 18 legislators.

“That made it almost impossible to accomplish things for the urban interests, but it was favored by the Republicans,” said Peter Riley.

Tom Riley's challenge to that system went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It made my father very unpopular in the Republican Party,” said Peter Riley.

Despite their differences in party and background, “I'd march for somebody like that, regardless of what party they're from,” said State Senate President Jack Kibbie, a Democrat and farmer from Emmetsburg who served with Riley in the state House.

“He was a statesman in many ways, trying to get people to work together. He was pro-Iowan and pro-education,” said Kibbie. “I enjoyed him very much.”

Born in Cedar Rapids in January 1929, Tom Riley graduated from then-Franklin High School. After earning his bachelor and law degree at the University of Iowa, he was he was commissioned a lieutenant and judge-advocate general in the Air Force, where assignments in the South exposed him to the condition of African Americans in the pre-civil rights era.

“When he saw injustice, it didn't matter where he saw it – he was ready to tackle anyone and anything,” said Ridge.

“It's helping underdogs hold the powerful accountable,” Tom Riley said in a 1997 interview. “I began practice with a ‘silk stocking' law firm that represented insurance companies and other vested interests. It's more gratifying to advance the cause of widows and orphans than it is to oppose their claims. The former appreciate your services more, too.”

In 1980 Tom Riley and Peter Riley, then just out of law school, started the Tom Riley Law Firm. The firm now has seven attorneys, including daughter Sara Riley, in offices in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

“It's been quite a ride,” said Todd Becker, the firm's third attorney. “I wouldn't want to work anyplace else.”

Just months after opening its doors, the Riley firm took on Procter & Gamble. In 1982 the firm won a verdict against the consumer-goods multinational in 1982 on behalf of the family of Patricia Kehm, a Cedar Rapids woman who died from toxic-shock syndrome caused by the company's Rely tampon.

“We were the first ones to get a verdict, so we ended up handling hundreds of toxic shock cases all over the country,” said Becker. “He was smart, he was aggressive, and in addition to those two things, he would outwork the other side. It was routine for him to work 80 or 90 hours a week.”

That continued through the late 1990s, but even within the past decade, Tom Riley worked up to 50 hours a week, Becker said.

Riley wrote four books and many articles on law and politics.

An avid collector, Riley supported the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, endowed scholarships at Kirkwood Community College and Coe College, and sponsored exhibits at The Carl and Mary Koehler History Center and  the African American Museum of Iowa.