Former state Sen. Leonard J. Bodack, who forged a reputation as a gruff and effective champion of Democratic causes and candidates, died Tuesday at age 82.
Mr. Bodack, an ex-Marine and Korean War veteran, represented a Lawrenceville-based district in the Senate from 1979 to 2002. He rose to be the chamber’s Democratic whip, the third-ranking position in the party’s leadership.
Prominent among the issues he embraced was a long-running fight against so-called “phantom taxes,” imposed on utility ratepayers.
He was also chairman of the Allegheny County Democratic Party from 1996 to 2002.
“What I liked about him was that he was a classic Pittsburgh guy,” said former Mayor Tom Murphy, who represented a state House district that overlapped the Bodack Senate seat before he became mayor. “He was straightforward. He liked you or he didn’t like you and there was no in-between, and he let you know it.”
“We obviously looked at politics in a different kind of way,” Mr. Murphy added. “I was more focused on issues and policies. Leonard was very much a product of the classic old Democratic ward system — ‘I’m going to help you and you’ve got to help me’ — but we figured out how to work together.”
Mr. Murphy said the senator had been an effective ally in securing state funds for Pittsburgh projects such as Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics center that helped seed the transformation of Lawrenceville from decades of industrial decline to the vibrant neighborhood it is today.
“Leonard cared deeply about Lawrenceville,” Mr. Murphy said.
“I found him to be a wonderful guy to deal with. His word was good.”
Common Pleas Judge Tom Flaherty, then a state legislator, lost to Mr. Bodack when he was first elected in 1978. They, too, ended up as allies as Mr. Flaherty succeeded him as the county’s party chairman.
“He beat me, then over the next few years we became friends,” he said.
“A lot of people feared him; he had that stern demeanor. But once you got to know him, he was a lot of fun. He had quite a sense of humor.”
The renowned Pittsburgh Press columnist Roy McHugh chronicled one 1980 exchange between Mr. Bodack and the head of Duquesne Light as the lawmaker pressed the executive on whether tax charges that appeared on utility bills accurately reflected the firms’ true tax liability.
Characterizing Mr. Bodack’s relentless grilling at a legislative hearing, Mr. McHugh compared him to a punishing boxer.
“There’s a little bit of Roberto Duran in Bodack,” he wrote.
Mr. Bodack’s position on the phantom tax issue was eventually vindicated in a state Supreme Court ruling. On another consumer issue, he campaigned against surcharges imposed on ATM transactions.
Recalling his father, Leonard Bodack Jr. of Pittsburgh, a former city councilman, said, “He was an ex-Marine. He was a tough son of a gun, but he was fair and he loved his family very much.”
Mr. Bodack was born in Pittsburgh in 1932, the son of the late Joseph and Mary L. Bodack. He attended Point Park College and was a Marine from 1950 until 1954. He was married to the late Shirley M. Bodack. In addition to his son Leonard, he is survived by children Cheryl Senkow, Mark Bodack, James Bodack, Carol Lavrinc and Patricia Podgorski, all of Pittsburgh; 13 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Friends will be received from 1 to 8 p.m. today at the Walter J. Zalewski Funeral Home, 216 44th St., Lawrenceville. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Saturday at 10 a.m. in Our Lady of the Angels Parish, St. Augustine Church, 235 37th St., followed by burial in Allegheny Cemetery.
First Published: July 10, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
