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Published: 6/16/2010

Congressman known for aiding housing, civil rights dies at 87

BY MARK ZABORNEY
BLADE STAFF WRITER

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Thomas Ludlow "Lud" Ashley, a liberal Democrat who played key roles in passing landmark civil rights, housing, and anti-poverty legislation while representing Toledo in Congress for more than a quarter century, died yesterday of melanoma at his home in Leland, Mich. He was 87.

Mr. Ashley cut a large figure on national and local stages, a genial good companion with a ready wit. He was colorful at times but also a thoughtful, skilled legislator capable of reconciling diverse interests to produce bills that would win floor approval.

While a student at Yale University in the 1940s, he befriended George H.W. Bush, and the two remained close for more than 60 years. Yesterday, former President Bush said in a statement that he and his wife, Barbara, "mourn the loss of a very close friend" and said Mr. Ashley "might well have been my very best friend in life."

During Mr. Ashley's congressional tenure from 1955 to 1980, he brought millions of dollars home to northwest Ohio.

On Capitol Hill, he was known as "Mr. Housing," shepherding America's public-housing programs through Congress in the 1960s and 1970s - including more than $15 million in public-housing units across Lucas County.

Through his efforts, Toledo was one of the first 30 cities in which food stamps were distributed to the poor.

With more than $11 million he secured, the Port of Toledo was dredged and improved, creating one of the nation's leading ports.

"It seemed like when the city needed the money, Lud would come through," Harry Kessler, Toledo's mayor from 1971-77 and now deceased, told The Blade in 1997.

Mr. Ashley's son Meredith, of Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., said yesterday that of all his father's Washington achievements, the lawmaker was proudest of what he did to help Toledo.

"There was a lot of national legislation that Dad was really proud of, but there was nothing he was more proud of than scoring that $11 million grant for downtown Toledo," he said.

Known universally as "Lud," Mr. Ashley was the 26th man to represent the 9th Congressional District in the House. Until his defeat in 1980, he served the district longer than anyone before him.

His great-grandfather James M. Ashley represented Toledo in Congress from 1859-69 as a Republican, having left the Democratic Party because of his anti-slavery beliefs.

The federal courthouse in downtown Toledo was named the James M. and Thomas W. Ludlow Ashley United States Courthouse by an act of Congress two years ago. President George W. Bush signed the measure, which had been sponsored by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), in a private White House ceremony, and the official renaming was held in Toledo on June 3, less than two weeks ago.

Miss Kaptur, who with her re-election in 2008 surpassed Lud Ashley's record for representing Toledo the longest in Congress, said yesterday that "Lud Ashley gave true meaning to the term 'public servant.' He followed admirably in the footsteps of his abolitionist great-grandfather, James, putting his genius to work in another tumultuous time and helping pass the momentous 1964 Civil Rights Act."

James Ashley's co-authorship of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, and his great-grandson's work on the Housing and Community Development Acts of 1974 and 1977 "reflect the Ashley family's place in history on the scales of justice and equality for all people," Miss Kaptur said.

Mr. Ashley had been a resident in recent years of Leland, Mich., near Traverse City, but noted in 2008 that his great-grandfather chose to settle in Toledo.

"It's where he was buried, and where I'm going to be buried," Mr. Ashley told The Blade. "Toledo's home."

Mr. Ashley was first elected to Congress in 1954, defeating incumbent Frazier Reams, Sr., an independent, in a three-way race. He proved a redoubtable vote-getter over the years, dispatching some of the best opponents the Republican Party could muster.

He rose to a position of leadership in the House of Representatives, becoming a close ally and personal friend of House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr.

In 1977, Mr. O'Neill named Mr. Ashley chairman of a special committee created to handle a package of bills submitted by President Jimmy Carter to deal with the energy crisis.

When energy legislation cleared Congress more than a year later, Mr. O'Neill sent Mr. Ashley a letter of praise.

"Somebody said that it couldn't be done, but they didn't know that Tip O'Neill had a friend who had knowledge, ability, toughness, and a never-say-die attitude, and who, when he was put on the first team, could run with the ball," the House Speaker wrote.

There were other instances of political courage.

In 1959, more than a decade before President Richard Nixon's landmark visit to the People's Republic of China, Mr. Ashley was one of two House members to openly support that nation's admission to the United Nations.

In 1961, he was one of only six congressmen who voted to cut off funds for the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Mr. Ashley also became a senior and influential member of three permanent House committees: budget; banking, finance, and urban affairs; and merchant marine and fisheries, serving briefly in 1980 as chairman of the latter panel.

Mr. Ashley was known especially for his expertise in housing and community development legislation.

He was chairman of the housing and community development subcommittee of the House banking, finance, and urban affairs committee, and much of the legislation dealing with urban housing and development problems that was passed in the 1970s bore his imprint.

In October, 1979, President Carter, at a White House ceremony marking the anniversary of a community development program, praised Mr. Ashley's legislative abilities.

"He cares about people, and he is superb in his ability to conceive legislative programs and have them passed by Congress," President Carter said.

Mr. Ashley loyally supported Democratic presidents, but he had good relations with President Gerald Ford, a Republican, and many Republican members of Congress.

While Mr. Ashley and President George H.W. Bush were Yale undergraduates, the two were tapped to be members of the elite secret student society Skull and Bones. In an old stone building owned by the society and known as the Tomb, the members confessed deep secrets to one another as part of their initiation.

"It allowed us to come to know more about one another," Mr. Ashley told The Blade in 1997. And from that sprang a lifelong friendship.

After Mr. Bush was elected president, Mr. Ashley spent many days with him at Camp David and the White House, especially in times of crisis.

In 1990, he went to Camp David to buck up the president after his budget was spurned by Congress, leading to a temporary shutdown of the federal government. I

"I have a lifetime of memories of friendship between those two that stretch back to my youngest days," Meredith Ashley said yesterday. "We'd go up to Kennebunkport [Maine] during the summer, well before he became vice president and president, and nothing ever changed in their friendship after he became vice president. If anything, their friendship got stronger."

Mr. Ashley joined Mr. Bush at the opening of the Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Texas, where the Toledo congressman's name appears prominently in biographies and videos of the 41st president.

Mr. Ashley, born Jan. 11, 1923, to Alida and William Ashley, was raised on Robinwood Avenue in the Old West End and attended Glenwood Elementary School.

His father owned a small steel manufacturing firm on Tracy Road and nearly lost his business during the Great Depression. The business rebounded, and the family moved to Front Street in Perrysburg. His parents sent their son to Kent School in Kent, Conn., from 1939 to 1942.

His older brother William, the heir apparent to the Ashley political legacy, was killed at age 22 in May, 1944, when his Army bomber exploded during a training mission over Massachusetts. All 10 aboard died.

Decades later, Mr. Ashley said he was greatly affected by the loss. "We were inseparable friends," Mr. Ashley said.

Mr. Ashley was a corporal in the Army during World War II, serving in the Pacific Theater.

He graduated from Yale in 1948 and was associated with the Toledo Publicity and Efficiency Commission that year.

Michael DiSalle, then mayor of Toledo and later governor of Ohio, encouraged him to study law, and Mr. Ashley enrolled in the University of Toledo law school. He later transferred to Ohio State University, from which he received a law degree in 1951.

Mr. Ashley was hired to be a special projects coordinator for Radio Free Europe and was stationed briefly in New York City.

In 1954, Mr. DiSalle was looking for a candidate to challenge Mr. Reams, the independent 9th District incumbent. Mr. DiSalle provided Mr. Ashley with considerable advice and aid. Mr. Ashley provided the energy and image in what was the first local campaign to make extensive use of television. Mr. Reams was defeated by 4,000 votes.

In 1980, when he was defeated by Republican challenger Ed Weber, some political analysts linked it to the landslide presidential victory of Ronald Reagan. But Mr. Ashley told The Blade in 1997 that it was his own fault, saying it was "tough to get enthusiastic about another campaign. And that's when you get beaten. I just didn't get the job done."

Miss Kaptur defeated Mr. Weber in 1982.

Mr. Ashley was married twice. He and the former Margaret Mary Sherman of Toledo married in August, 1956, in Manassas, Va., but separated that fall.

In 1967, he married Kathleen Lucey, a graduate of Georgetown University law school who'd begun working as an assistant in his office in 1962.

Mr. Ashley was a student of history and politics with a personal library that testified to those passions. He also loved opera and gardening.

His decision to make Leland, Mich., his home came a few years after the death of Kathleen in 1997.

Mr. Ashley was a member of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation at the time of his death and earlier served on numerous other boards including those of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation's two largest mortgage lenders.

He is survived by sons Meredith (Monica) Ashley of Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., and Mark Ashley of Washington; daughter, Lise Murphy of Washington; brother, Charles S. Ashley, and sister-in-law Gerry Ashley, of Leland, and many nieces and nephews.

A reception for family and friends will be held from 3-6 p.m. Sunday in the Ashley home, 402 Mill St., Leland. A memorial service will be held later in Washington and interment will be in Toledo's Historic Woodlawn Cemetery.

The family requests that any donations be to the Leland Township Library. Martinson Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Contact Mark Zaborney at:

mzaborney@theblade.com

or 419-724-6182.

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