Remembering former Gov. Lucey, a "hard-nosed Democrat"

MILWAUKEE (WITI/AP) — Former Wisconsin Gov. Patrick Lucey is being remembered as a great family and religious man who helped the state and the Democratic Party.

Lucey was a hard-nosed Democrat who died May 10 at age 96.

He was Wisconsin's governor from 1970 to 1977.

He was re-elected in 1974 but he left midway through the term to serve as President Jimmy Carter's ambassador to Mexico.

But by 1980, disappointed with the country's direction under Carter, Lucey left the Democratic Party and ran for vice president as an independent.

Lucey's Wisconsin legacy includes his push to merge the University of Wisconsin in Madison with the state college system. The fierce battle ultimately led to the current system of 13 four-year state colleges.

"A brutal political fight -- but I think every student should all be thankful to Pat Lucey," former Gov. Jim Doyle said.

Lucey is also remembered for appointing Shirley Abrahamson to the state Supreme Court in 1976. She became the first woman on the state's high court.



The English poet John Donne wrote: "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls...it tolls for thee."

Former Gov. Lucey was eulogized by his son as a man who was touched by poetry more deeply than anything else on this earth.

His life story would read like an epic poem.

"He's one of the giants in this state. He accomplished so much," former Gov. Tommy Thompson said.

"He wasn't in it for personal glory. He never sought that," former Gov. Jim Doyle said.

Lucey helped to build the Democratic Party in Wisconsin.

"First of all, there wasn't even a Democratic Party in this state. Pat Lucey was really the one who organized it," former Gov. Jim Doyle said.

In the 1960 presidential primary, Lucey put that organization behind John F. Kennedy.

"John F. Kennedy said he would not have been president without Pat Lucey being chairman of the Democratic Party. His list of accomplishments goes on and on," former Gov. Jim Doyle said.

But life does not, and so the bell tolled for Lucey -- the governor who always loved poetry more than politics.

He requested that the final words at his funeral come from a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson: "Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark -- and may there be no sad farewell, when I embark."

Lucey was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery on Monday.

Lucey's wife died in 2011. He is survived by his two sons, a daughter, and nine grandchildren.