Lehigh Valley leaders remember former Gov. Thornburgh
Although he was a Pittsburgh native, former Gov. Dick Thornburgh’s legacy reaches across the state into the Lehigh Valley.
Thornburgh died Thursday at age 88. Local leaders recalled him as a leader with vision that helped the region diversify as its industrial past started to fade away.
Tony Iannelli, president and CEO of Greater Lehigh Chamber of Commerce, recalled being at various events with Thornburgh when Iannelli was general manager of Allentown’s Hamilton Plaza, owned by late businessman Ray Holland.
“He was a classic statesman type of political figure that we may have lost in this new, more aggressive, news-ready world,” Iannelli said of Thornburgh.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey said Thornburgh led Pennsylvania and the Department of Justice “successfully and with integrity.”
“The steady nature in which he guided Pennsylvania through one of its most dangerous crises the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island should serve as an example for all elected officials,” the Republican senator said.
Retired U.S. District Judge Edward N. Cahn met Thornburgh shortly after he was elected governor. Cahn had recently been appointed to the federal judiciary, and the Philadelphia Bar Association held a joint reception for them where they became acquainted. Cahn called Thornburgh a good politician for Pennsylvania.
As a judge, Cahn was later called upon to decide on a challenge to Thornburgh’s appointment by the state Republican committee to run in a U.S. Senate special election after Sen. John Heinz died in a 1991 plane crash. Cahn ruled against Thornburgh, finding that candidates in Senate elections must be chosen by voters in a primary election, but his decision was overturned by an appellate court.
Thornburgh was praised in later years for recognizing that Pennsylvania’s manufacturing industry was fading and pumping state money into economic development for newb usinesses. It led in 1982 to the formation of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, a statewide network that includes a hub at Lehigh University’s Mountaintop Campus.
R. Chadwick Paul Jr., who as of Monday becomes outgoing CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, recalled Thornburgh attended the organization’s 2014 iXchange event to receive a partnership award.
“Gov. Thornburgh was a prince, a true gentleman, and he did probably more for economic development in Pennsylvania, not just technology but economic development in general, than any governor in my lifetime,” Paul said.
Chief Marketing Officer Laura Eppler said when she met Thornburgh at the 2014 event, he told her that his work in creating the statewide Ben Franklin Technology Partners was among his proudest accomplishments.
Ben Franklin has existed through seven administrations, from Thornburgh through Gov. Tom Wolf. And since beginning in 1983, the local Ben Franklin has helped to create 19,257 new jobs and retain 43,880 workers in its service area, which includes the Lehigh Valley. It also has helped start 525 new companies, and develop 2,113 new products and processes.
Thornburgh and his wife toured Ben Franklin’s Tech Ventures building the day after the iXchange event with Paul.
“Hewas really down to earth,” Paul said. “When you talked with him, he looked you in the eye, he asked you questions, so he knew what you said. And he was truly interested in what you had to say.”
Paul, who took over as the local Ben Franklin CEO in 2002, recalled Thornburgh was also governor in 1985 when he appeared at what became the Ben Franklin Tech Ventures, formerly on the site of Bethlehem Steel Corp.’s Homer Research Laboratories. Homer Research Labs was donated by Bethlehem Steel in November 1982. Lehigh University spent $75,000 to renovate the facility, and it began operating in October 1983.