PSU Magazine Winter 2004

Proving the lobbyist lore wrong ONG BEFORE HE JOINED THEIR RANKS, Richard "Dick" Feeney '62 thought of lobbyists as one former U.S. president did when he said, "They'd infested, like rodents, the bars and lounges of Washington, D.C. " ew Lo Capitol Hill, where he worked for the late Edith Green, a congresswoman from Oregon, in the 1960s, the twenty-something Feeney-still swathed in youthful naivete-believed the lore of the lobbyist: lying lowlife. Admitting you were a lobbyist, he says ominously, "was like saying, Tm a serial killer."' After spending some time on Capitol Hill, he realized lobbying was far less reviled, provided you dealt in legiti– mate currency. "You have to tell the truth, knowing that a lot of people are thinking you're worse than a sinner," says Feeney, 65. Still, he might not have pursued this line of work had it not pursued him. F eeney, whose degree is in politi– cal science and history, was hired in 1977 as director of what is now PSU's Institute of Portland Met– ropolitan Studies. But his interest in Portland's transportation and eco– nomic development, and a confer– ence he organized at PSU on light rail, ignited his interest in a different job. Hired by Tri.Met in 1978 as exec– utive di.rector of governmental affairs, Feeney's primary charge for the past 25 years has been lobbying for light rail. For his efforts, Port– land has received more than $2 bil– lion in federal funds, and its public transportation is a model for other cities. Where Feeney's political sensibilities took root was in Washington, D.C. He arrived Lo work for Green, a Portland Democrat, in the spring of 1960, serving that same year as chairman of Young Citizens for Kennedy-Johnson. After being in D.C. for a year, Feeney got a wild hair Lo join the U.S. Anny, and did so promptly after a PSU professor told him that enlisting "may take more guts than you've got." What he did once he joined remains cloudy Lo friends, who allege he was a spy. "All I can say is that l trained as a spook," says Feeney, "and it was a gas." Before Feeney departed for the Army, Denny West '63 took over Feeney's post in Green's office and spent six months as his roommate, tolerating peculiar habits-trick handshakes and unnerving remarks-while learning how to loosen up. "I learned almost everything about being Irish, includ– ing how to drink fairly substantial amounts of Guinness stout," says West, a retired director for the Housing Authority of Portland. After a circuitous jaum that also included working as a political editor for the former Portland Reporter and teaching English in Turkey, Feeney returned to work for Green-this time helping develop legislation. 0 ul to lunch one day with a friend of Green's, Feeney was aghast to learn the gentleman was a lobbyist. "l was stunned, because he seemed honest . .. and even nice," he recalls. As a graduate student at Harvard University in the 1970s, Feeney's research on lobbying confirmed what he'd come to realize. "You have to make people feel confident they can rely on what you tell them," Feeney says. Tuck Wilson, a longtime friend and head of the Housing Author– ity's New Columbia Project, worked for a decade in the 1990s with Feeney on the Westside Light Rail Project. His ability to "create unity at home" made him credible with constituents and lawmakers, Wilson says. F eeney, who has made a career of relaying his passion to the public, is adept at putting "poetry into politics"-<:onnecting light rail to what Ponlanders love about their city: clean air and rivers, unpolluted sunsets, and vibrant neighborhoods. "We're trying to build a community that responds to an ancient yearning to be together," says Feeney. As pan of that community, PSU remains a central focus for expansion of the now ubiquitous light rail, he says. "PSU is a very big deal, and it's getting bigger." ln his semi-retiremenL from TriMet, Feeney has returned to PSU as a student, auditing courses in Turkish and Mod– ern History of Arabia. Feeney, who with his \vife, Ann Kelley Feeney, has three daughters, is a legend among friends-if not ½ithin a com– munity whose collective destination he has helped shape. "He was part of this incredible generation, ,.vhich came out of Portland State in the '60s, ready to make a differ– ence ," says Wilson. -Jennifer Lcwanc/owshi WINTER 2004 PSU MAGAZINE 21