Teacher advocate dies

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Tom Mooney was president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
From Cincinnati.com

BY STEVE KEMME

ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Dec. 3, 2006; 10:35 pm

Tom Mooney, a strong and passionate force in public education in Cincinnati and throughout Ohio, died Sunday of an apparent heart attack in his apartment in Columbus.

Mooney, 52, had been president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers for the past six years. He served as president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers for the previous 21 years.

His death shocked and saddened his family, friends and professional colleagues.

“We’re just devastated by this,” said his brother, Don Mooney, a Cincinnati attorney and a local Democratic Party activist. “We’re just stunned and disappointed that somebody who had so much to give to his friends, his family and his profession would die so young.”

Sue Taylor, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, praised Mooney for his leadership and for his concern about the quality of public education.

“So many of us learned so much from Tom,” she said.

John Gilligan, former Ohio governor who is a member of the Cincinnati Board of Education, called Mooney “an enormously effective and charismatic leader. He’s going to be badly missed.”

A graduate of McNicholas High School in Mount Washington and Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Mooney started his career as a Cincinnati high school government teacher. He quickly became active in the teachers union.

As president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Mooney earned a reputation as an articulate and fearless advocate for teachers and public education. His positions occasionally caused him to clash with school administrators.

“He would be out on the teacher picket lines,” Gilligan said. “He took a lot of abuse over the years for the stands he took on behalf of teachers.”

As president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, Mooney was a critic of charter schools and fought to make them more accountable.

In addition to his brother, Mooney leaves his wife, Debbie Schneider; a son, Ruairi Rhodes, of Cincinnati, by his first wife, Virginia Rhodes; his daughter Lielah Mooney, who is attending Barnard College in New York City; his mother, Marguerite Mooney of Hyde Park; and two sisters, Leslie Mooney of Philadelphia, and Christine Mooney of Mount Washington.

Ruairi Mooney is following his father’s footsteps in union activities. He is an organizer in the Service Employees International Union.

David Little, a Cincinnati political consultant and Democratic activist, was a close friend of Mooney’s.

“Tom was a bright shining star for progressive thought in politics in the state of Ohio,” he said.

On Sunday evening, Little invited some of Mooney’s other friends to his house to console each other. They played some of Mooney’s favorite recordings, including “Carry On,” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

“That’s what Tom would want us to do,” Little said. “He’d want us to carry on with the things he believed in.”

Mooney was extremely proud of his Irish heritage and had an encyclopedic knowledge of Irish history and culture.

In his honor on Sunday evening, Little and his friends had a sip of Irish whiskey. “I never drink it,” Little said. “But I always got it out for Tom.”

Funeral arrangements are pending.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com