Staten Island's Bob Connelly, a Democratic party mainstay, has died ...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Robert V. Connelly, 87, an elder statesman of the borough's Democratic party and husband of the late Assemblywoman Elizabeth Connelly, died Friday night in Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

Mr. Connelly was an industry leader in the air cargo field, and worldwide traveler in his more than 35 years in the business. But to Staten Islanders, he was known as the gentlemanly sidekick and booster for his wife, Democratic Assemblywoman Elizabeth Connelly.?

Mr. Connelly served as her confidante, unofficial aide and informal proxy at countless Staten Island events over the decades. He joined his wife in Albany during legislative sessions, and even joined her in some staff meetings.

He also served as secretary of the Democratic County Committee and as a district captain.

Mr. Connelly's popularity was such that at one time, his name was floated as a possible candidate for borough president. But he opted to stay on the sidelines.

Viewing has been scheduled for Sunday and Monday. Funeral plans, being arranged by the Harmon Home for Funerals, are not yet final.

A full obituary will follow later. Below is a 2002 Advance report prepared by Diane C. Lore on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Connellys' wedding.

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Staten Island's former First Lady of the state Legislature, retired Assemblywomen Elizabeth A. Connelly (D-North Shore), and her husband, Robert V. Connelly of Westerleigh, recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with a family party and weekend reunion at the Mohawk Mountain House, New Paltz, N.Y. The celebration was arranged by their children and grandchildren.

The couple married September 6, 1952, at Christ the King R. C. Church in the Bronx, with a reception in the nearby Concourse Plaza Hotel on the Grand Concourse, in the shadow of Yankee Stadium.

Mr. Connelly, an avid baseball fan, recalled the former hotel was a favorite hang-out for New York Yankee team members, as well as their rivals, the New York Giants. As luck would have it, on the day of their wedding, the place was packed with teammates from the New York Giants who played a double-header that day at the Polo Grounds. As the newlyweds entered the hotel, headed for their reception, they ran into Giants pitcher Max Lanier and shortstop Alvin Dark, who waved and wished them well.

Unfortunately, recalls Mr. Connelly, most of the wedding party were Brooklyn Dodgers fans.

ANOTHER BASEBALL ANGLE

The Connellys' engagement also has a baseball angle.

Too shy to propose during dinner in the Concourse Plaza, Mr. Connelly finally offered his intended the ring at the Yankee Stadium subway stop. That was 54 years ago on Thanksgiving Day.

The couple met in the late 1940s while they were both working for Pan American World Airways in the defunct airline's former Manhattan headquarters. Mrs. Connelly, the former Elizabeth Ann Keresey, started there as a secretary in 1946, after graduating from high school. Two years later, she was promoted to the cargo and telephone sales office, where she met a new employee, Robert Connelly, who would be her supervisor for a time.

"He was a nice fellow, good-looking and easy-going. A lot of women had their eye on him," Mrs. Connelly recalled.

For his part, Mr. Connelly thought the new member of his department, with her alabaster skin and dark hair, was attractive. "She had a wonderful personality, a good sense of humor, and even then, she had this independent spirit," he said.

"I was her boss when we started out, then we married, and she's been my boss ever since," he joked.

Mrs. Connelly left Pan Am in 1954, when the couple moved from Manhattan to Graniteville to raise a family. "Back then, it was what women did. We worked until we got married, and then we left to raise our family. It was a given," Mrs. Connelly said.

They moved from Graniteville to West Brighton, and have been at their current address in Westerleigh since 1962.

POLITICAL TALK

Born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx, Mrs. Connelly, 74, whet her political appetite sitting around the dinner table with her mother, Alice, grandmother Elizabeth (Bess), for whom she was named, and grandfather Edward. The three adults loved to talk about New York and Bronx politics. Mrs. Connelly's mother did some neighborhood campaigning for local Democratic candidates, and she encouraged her daughter to register to vote as soon as she came of age and to take an interest in campaign issues.

After she married and moved to Staten Island, Mrs. Connelly began to help out on the campaigns of several friends who were candidates for public office. Eventually, she was elected to the Democratic County Committee, became a member of the North Shore Democratic Club in 1966, and subsequently was named district leader in 1972.

The following year, in 1973, at the urging of Democratic county leader Jim Smith, she ran for and was elected to the New York State Assembly, representing the borough's North Shore. She became the first Staten Island woman elected to public office.

STRING OF FIRSTS

Before she retired a year-and-a-half ago, after 27 years in public office, she was the longest-serving woman in the history of the New York State legislature.

When she retired, she was serving as Speaker Pro Tempore of the Assembly, also the highest-ranking leadership post held by a woman in the history of the state Assembly.

During her years in the legislature, Mrs. Connelly served as chair of the Assembly Committee on Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, and became known as a staunch advocate for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. She also aided veterans' causes as a member of the Assembly Committee on Veterans Affairs, and subcommittee on women veterans.

Mrs. Connelly is a member of numerous boards, committees, societies, councils and other community organizations. She served as the first woman chair of the board of trustees of Staten Island University Hospital. She is also a member of the National Order of Women Legislators and a past-president of the American Irish Legislators Society.

Among the more than 350 awards and honors received by Mrs. Connelly are the New York State Catholic Conference Public Policy Award, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith's Torch of Liberty Award, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Wagner College, and the St. John's University President's Medal. In 1985, Mrs. Connelly was named a Staten Island Advance Woman of Achievement.

Since her retirement, Mrs. Connelly has enjoyed spending time in her garden, cooking for her family, and spending time with her grandchildren.

TWO HIGH ACHIEVERS

Mr. Connelly, 77, was born and raised in New Brighton, save for a year he spent as a resident of the former St. Michael's Home in Greenridge during the Depression. His father had to place the family there after his mother became ill and couldn't care for her five children. The family was reunited a year later, however. At St. Michael's, which had its own farm, Mr. Connelly recalled that one of his chores was to collect eggs in the hen house -- a task that stood him well later in life as he became a successful executive in the air cargo and shipping field.

Upon graduating from St. Peter's Boys High School in 1942, Mr. Connelly joined the Navy at the age of 17 and served for 40 months. He was an aviation machinist's mate, and had been recommended to attend officers' candidate school just before he was discharged in 1946 as a first-class petty officer.

While in the Navy, stationed at Pensacola, Fla., Mr. Connelly played a role in developing a device credited with saving the lives of many naval aviators whose planes crashed in the sea. He was part of a three-man team that developed the "Dilbert Dunker," a flight-training tool designed to simulate actual at-sea crash conditions using a swimming pool. Navy aviators used the device to practice freeing themselves while upside-down in the water.

After his discharge from the Navy, Mr. Connelly obtained a position with an airline and got into the then-fledgling air cargo field. In 1948, he went to work for Pan Am and eventually rose to become a district cargo agency sales supervisor. In 1950, he joined Acme Air Cargo, Inc. as its U.S. sales manager. He remained with Acme for three years.

WORLD TRAVELER

In 1953, he and a partner, Jerry Miller, decided to set up an air cargo division for Frederick Henjes Sr. Inc. He, Miller, and two other partners, acquired control of the business and formed Henjes Air Cargo, Inc., turning it into one of the leading independent air cargo agencies in the United States. Mr. Connelly became an industry leader, serving as president of the International Air Freight Agents Association, and in various advisory capacities to the airline and the poultry and egg industry. The business required Mr. Connelly to travel extensively, however, leaving his wife to care for their young family for long periods. He has been to more than 35 countries and 65 cities, and traveling remains one of his pleasures.

In 1987, after 37 years on-the-job, Mr. Connelly decided to retire and devote his time to community interests and to supporting his wife's career in the state Legislature. While Mrs. Connelly was the official office-holder, her husband became her confidante and unofficial aide. He filled in for his wife at functions, chauffeured her to different commitments on Staten Island, stayed with her during the legislative session in Albany and took part in staff meetings.

In addition he kept up his own interests, serving on the advisory board of the Catholic Youth Organization, and its Margaret Gioiosa High School Scholarship Fund. For him, the program was a "payback" for the CYO scholarship that enabled him to attend St. Peter's High School.

He served as the borough's director of economic development under the administration of former Borough President Ralph J. Lamberti; as a member of the board of visitors of the former Staten Island Developmental Center in Willowbrook, during the hectic days of its dismantlement, and as a member of the advisory council of the State Commission on the Quality of Care for the Mentally Disabled.

STILL ACTIVE

He and his wife remain members of the North Shore Democratic Club, and have served as Democratic county committee members and as district captains. Most recently, they served on the board of the Staten Island September 11 Fund created by the Staten Island Advance to aid local families of the victims of the World Trade Center attack.

Like his wife, many honors have come to Mr. Connelly over the years, including his selection as the grand marshal of the 1995 Staten Island St. Patrick's Parade, and the 1987 designation by the Young Democrats of Richmond County as its "Democrat of the Year."

As a couple, the Connellys have long been active members of Blessed Sacrament R. C. Church, West Brighton. Mr. Connelly has served as chair of the parish finance committee and school council, as a parish trustee and president of the Titan League, a youth sports group. One of the couple's most prized possessions is a photograph of the late Cardinal Terence Cooke blessing Mr. Connelly for his work at Blessed Sacrament. Earlier this year they were honored by the parish for their 50th wedding anniversary, and also received a certificate from Cardinal Edward Egan in St. Patrick's Cathedral.

"When we look back on it now. . ," Mrs. Connelly reflected, her voice trailing off. "Your greatest goal in life back then was to keep your head above water, maybe make $100 a week to support your family, and hope to raise your children until they left home and got married."

The couple agrees their "greatest gift has been our children," Mr. Connelly said.

They are the parents of four children, Alice M. Lanzi of Port Richmond Center; Robert V. Connelly Jr. of Las Vegas; Margaret A. Nicholson of Katonah, N.Y., and Therese B. Shannon of Goshen, N.Y. Six grandchildren complete the family circle.

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