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Forest Hill mayor Marty B. O'Malley.
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Obituary: Marty B. O’Malley / Forest Hills mayor fought for social causes

Lake Fong/Post-Gazette

Obituary: Marty B. O’Malley / Forest Hills mayor fought for social causes

Aug. 21, 1941 / Feb. 23, 2015

Forest Hills Mayor Marty O’Malley would turn up at picnics, political events and protests, congressional offices and council meetings all around Pittsburgh. He’d be wearing a “Vietnam Veteran” baseball cap and all kinds of badges and buttons touting social causes.

And he’d be wearing a smile.

“He was a happy warrior,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills. “He fought for lots of progressive causes, but always in an upbeat way, and his personality was just infectious. You’d see him everywhere. If you were active in politics and causes, you were going to bump into him. We’re really going to miss him.”

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Mr. O’Malley died Monday of natural causes at his home in Forest Hills. He was 73.

A child of an Irish Catholic family in Greenfield, Mr. O’Malley attended Central Catholic High and studied economics at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. In 1965, he volunteered for the Navy and served a year in Vietnam, an experience that touched him with pride and heartbreak.

“When I was a kid, he wouldn’t talk about Vietnam,” said his youngest daughter, Katie O’Malley, who works for Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto. “He was not open about it initially. I don’t know if shame is the right word. I remember I’d talk about it and he’d get mad at me, and I didn’t even know what Vietnam meant.”

Many didn’t. In 1971, Mr. O’Malley joined Vietnam Veterans for Peace. The next year, local activist Molly Rush co-founded the Thomas Merton Center, whose members also advocate for peace. It wasn’t long before Mr. O’Malley was with them.

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“He was a very lovely, good-humored guy,” Ms. Rush said. “He was always telling jokes, but he had a serious side. Not just about war and peace, but also local issues. He eventually was on our board, but he was always helping. He would come get our monthly newspaper and distribute it at libraries and various places.”

He and his wife of 37 years, JoAnn, raised four children in Forest Hills. Peace and politics were part of their lives. Katie O’Malley grew up watching her father stuff envelopes, get signatures on petitions and go door to door.

“He loved the process,” she said, “and he saw results in grass-roots efforts. The little victories were the biggest victories. When I was younger, we’d go out and he’d put yard signs everywhere and then when he heard one was stolen, he’d run back out and plop another one in there. Now, the more I get around this political process, I realize that’s the kind of support candidates can’t buy. You can’t make up somebody that is that enthusiastic.”

Former Forest Hills Mayor Ken Gormley, now the dean of the Duquesne Law School, first met Mr. O’Malley just that way.

“He volunteered to help me on my little campaign, hanging placards door to door, and I believe he stood at the polls for me,” Mr. Gormley said. “He was always active and eager to help in any way and loved being part of the community.

”He was a regular face at council meetings and always a smiling face. He’d be there either to express his views or to just observe. Yet he was never angry or argumentative. He was always talking about positive things. He was a person of deep convictions. He was proud to be a veteran, but he was very antiwar. And he was never afraid to step out and speak up for causes.“

It was the dawn of the Gulf War in the early 1990s that moved Mr. O’Malley to a level of involvement that would drive him the rest of his days. He attended more than 100 anti-Iraq war events. In 2008, he went to the Downtown office of Mr. Doyle to help deliver an anti-war petition, but the person with it did not arrive.

“People walk past and say, ‘I’m glad you’re doing something,’” he told a reporter. “I want to shake them and say, ‘Why aren’t you doing something?’”

His daughter said he occasionally could be feel defeated or disenfranchised, “but it never seemed to get him down to the point he didn’t want to do it.”

“I got to know him well when I was on city council about 15 years ago and he was one of the leaders pushing for a resolution to promote peace instead war,” Mr. Peduto said. “It took over a half year to pass, after the diocese and labor got behind it.

“But anybody who knew him or had the opportunity to meet him, liked him. He cared about people. And Marty had a secret weapon. It was his smile and the twinkle in his Irish eyes. It was genuine. I’ve known him through many causes of social justice and many a heated argument, and I can’t remember him ever being upset. I can see him passionate and speaking with deep empathy, but I never heard him raise his voice or have a temper. He was above it.”

In 2005, Mr. O’Malley decided to campaign for himself, for a change, as he was elected to the Forest Hills Borough Council. Five years later, after discussing the move with his dying wife, he ran for mayor and won. He began his second term last year.

“He was always very upbeat and very pleasant and very passionate about a great variety of issues,” said state Sen. Jay Costa, who represents Forest Hills and knew Mr. O’Malley for more than 20 years. “Whether it was working with veterans, being concerned about our community, or other more progressive issues, he always had this strong belief and passion and energy and wanted to talk about it. It was refreshing to have someone so well-versed and so thoughtful and committed to various causes.”

Survivors include a sister, Cecelia O’Malley Murphy of O’Hara, daughters, Maureen O’Malley-Wadhwa of Squirrel Hill, Mary Brennan Carey of Sewickley and Katie O’Malley of Shadyside, a son, Jack O’Malley of Highland Park; and seven grandchildren.

Visitation is 5-8 p.m. tonight and 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Thursday at Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home in East Pittsburgh. Funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Maurice Church in Forest Hills, followed by a burial with military honors at St. Mary Cemetery in Lawrenceville.

Donations may be made to the Thomas Merton Center, Central Catholic High School, or the Joseph Kelly Women’s Cancer Research and Education Fund, c/o Magee Hospital of UPMC.

First Published: February 25, 2015, 5:00 a.m.

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Forest Hill mayor Marty B. O'Malley.  (Lake Fong/Post-Gazette)
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