LaBarge won respect in long service to city

Monday, August 10, 2009

NORTHAMPTON - Raymond W. LaBarge, an irascible ward politician whose decades of service connected today's Northampton with earlier eras, died Saturday at the age of 87 while receiving care at a nursing home.

LaBarge's public image as a contentious old-school city councilor, one known at times for calling out the perceived follies of adversaries, masked what intimates call his intense devotion to constituents and friends.

LaBarge, who had retired in 1975 from 30 years of work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, managed in his late 70s to adapt to a new political climate, when others from his era could not.

"It seems appropriate that Ray would die in office," said William H. Dwight, a former Ward 1 city councilor. "I think Ray would prefer it that way."

LaBarge's passing brought forth many fond memories from city political leaders this weekend, even among those who came away from their dealings with him occasionally bruised.

LaBarge was known - even celebrated, by some - for speaking his mind. That may have been part of his lasting appeal among constituents. It did weaken the affection that even those he occasionally targeted, including Mayor Clare Higgins, felt for him.

"I enjoyed him and I'm going to miss him. He was a true patriot, of that World War II generation," Higgins said Sunday.

Though he had announced in 2007 that this would be his last two-year council term, LaBarge had been toying with the idea of another run for office this year.

Even as he faced health setbacks, following a motor vehicle accident on Elm Street in Northampton this year and a broken hip this summer, he insisted on being available. LaBarge told fellow councilors they could pick him up from the nursing home or hospital and get him to any important council vote.

Michael R. Bardsley, an at-large city councilor, says that when he visited LaBarge late last week at the nursing home, LaBarge looked up at him and said, with just a little bit of an edge, "What do you want?" Bardsley, who laughed recalling the moment, says he explained there was no council business to conduct. He was there just to visit.

Bardsley says he will remember LaBarge's fierce sense of loyalty, his impassioned public service and his feisty wit.

LaBarge's quips, he said, made you pause, and mostly made you laugh.

"It would be very funny, very fitting, and very original."

The longtime councilor didn't take everything lightly, however. He believed in honoring commitments and held people accountable to a code that he alone - by far the oldest member of the panel - may have fully understood.

LaBarge may go down as one of the most misunderstood political leaders in Northampton history, interviews suggest. While he cultivated a reputation for brutal honesty, one spoiling for a fight, among friends he was ever approachable - and a bit of a softy.

"He was extremely loyal to people who were loyal to him," Bardsley said Sunday. "When those loyalties were broken, he didn't think lightly of it.

"He was like a bulldog - an aggressive advocate for his constituents. He would represent what he thought was good for his ward - that's what he would push."

When he returned to the council in 2000, after six years out of office, LaBarge showed an ability to adapt to a new lineup on the board. "He shifted gears," said Bardsley. "I saw him as being able to change."

Dwight also watched the adjustments LaBarge made in order to serve alongside people elected by progressive voters.

"It was pretty impressive that he was able to survive when others didn't," said Dwight, referring to councilors who did not seek re-election after being put out. "Ray was nobody's fool and he knew how to play back-room, old-school politics. He was able to function in the council and in effect served as a counterpoint that was helpful."

When he wasn't downtown at council meetings, LaBarge - known to most as "Ish," a nickname from his time with the Navy - stuck to his knitting, enjoying his contact with neighbors and fellow residents of the village at the city's western edge. He fielded and processed requests for small-scale improvements in civic life - things like sidewalk and road repairs and traffic lights. "He was all about constituent service. It was what made him the 'mayor of Leeds,'" Dwight said.

Helping others

On the council, LaBarge proved to be a mentor to two generations of a family related to him by marriage - first Richard LaBarge, and then that councilor's mother, Marianne L. LaBarge, who represents Ward 6.

His message to both, as she put it: "'Always remember your people elected you. Listen to what they say to you.' I will miss his knowledge, politically, of this city. He has taught me a lot.

"We are losing a wonderful, wonderful man. He has done a lot of beautiful things for the city of Northampton and for Leeds."

Marianne LaBarge said that on the day LaBarge died, she and City Clerk Wendy Mazza were visiting him at the nursing home and offered to cheer him up by dancing. As they began, he reportedly said, "Oh my God, I'm going to have a heart attack."

Marianne LaBarge then offered to do a little tap-dancing, a passion of hers. Her audience of one then offered: "Oh my God, I'm going to have a second heart attack."

Their closeness and affection, she said, enabled them to get over a few bumps, including a time when Ray LaBarge, in a radio interview, made a remark about immigration that offended her family. They were able to patch things up, she said. She believes his abrupt, even curt, way of speaking at times made people like him for his candor, even as it alienated others.

She acknowledged, though, that LaBarge's blunt way of speaking, and his shifting alliances, caused fractures in his political relationships. "If he gets angered with you, he'll keep the anger a little while," she said.

Mazza said LaBarge stepped into her life as a substitute father, after her own died in 1990. "He was right there. He called me every night. He was my stabilizing force. A big part of me is really hurt," she said of his death.

Those who knew only LaBarge's prickly side do not understand the man's deep love for Leeds and Northampton, Mazza said. "He had a heart of gold. He would have helped anybody who needed help - and has proven that."

"People who really know Ray love Ray," she said. But she acknowledges that his leaves some people in Northampton out. Not everyone, she notes, comprehended his sense of humor. And LaBarge was not one to seek to be understood.

"He was true to his beliefs. He didn't dance around his feelings at all," Mazza said. "I learned to laugh from him."

She also learned how to speak out. She says LaBarge's lasting message might well be, "If you don't like what's going on around you, speak up."

One of those to get on LaBarge's wrong side was James Dostal, the City Council president, after Dostal did not appoint LaBarge to a committee in part because of the elder councilor's hearing problems, which stemmed from an incident at sea during World War II.

Dostal declined to comment when reached Sunday.

"Ray's alliances and enmities changed like quicksilver," said Dwight, the former city councilor. "If he wanted to take a swipe at you, you knew you were hit."

Michael Ahearn Sr. served for four years on the City Council with LaBarge near the start of the latter's political career. He recalls that LaBarge put his name in nomination for City Council president - and appreciates it still. Both men had grown up in Leeds and were longtime friends.

"I always appreciated his confidence in me," Ahearn said. "He had the city of Northampton at his heart and voted the way he thought things should be done. Things have changed in Northampton. But he did a lot for the city. He fought hard for his ward and got a lot done for his little community up there."

Ahearn adds, "He'll be missed in politics in Northampton. That was his whole life."

Wake-up call

Higgins remembers that near the start of her public service in Northampton, she received a phone call from LaBarge at 6:30 a.m. He was calling to confirm a detail related to city business - and incidentally showing her he was a morning person, even if she wasn't.

Over the years, the two developed what the mayor terms a mutually respectful relationship, amid differences.

As they tended to their own agendas, LaBarge followed a courtesy not always present in politics today - advance notice.

"He said, 'I might go against you, but I'll call you and tell you first.'"

Higgins suggests that the hallmark of LaBarge's service to Northampton is his responsiveness to the people who voted him in to office. "He really cared about his constituents - the people of Leeds."

While that did indeed become a kind of mantra for LaBarge, he did not always seek to simply to please.

He supported changes to the intersection of North Maple Street and Bridge Road in Florence, even though it was unpopular in the neighborhood. In the council, LaBarge said the junction, not far from the JFK Middle School, needed to be safer for children.

"He felt strongly about what he felt strongly about," Higgins said. "He wasn't always going to let another opinion come through there. The positions that he took and the way he took them came out of the strength of his feelings about what the issues were."

On the council, Higgins looked to LaBarge to provide perspective. "He brought that sense of history. He had been with city government through lots of ups and downs."

Earlier, LaBarge served on the committee that renovated the Leeds School. His obituary asks that memorial donations be directed to one place - the school.

Kay Sheehan, the former Leeds School principal, said LaBarge relished his service on the School Committee as well as his contact with his own elementary school. He continually reached out to improve the school. "He felt part of it. It was something he could see and do. He really loved Leeds and he did love the school," she said. "He knew the person to call to get things done."

She worries that people might overlook those sorts of small gifts LaBarge gave his city, over many years. "I hope people remember him as very giving, and very understanding."

Larry Parnass, the Gazette's editor, can be reached at lparnass@gazettenet.com