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0_0 | John Vincent "Jack" Geraghty, Jr. (born February 23, 1934) is an Irish American civic politician, |
0_1 | journalist, and public relations consultant from Spokane, Washington. In 1964, he was elected to |
0_2 | the Spokane County Board of Commissioners, while simultaneously serving in the Air National Guard |
0_3 | and working as a staff journalist with the Spokane Daily Chronicle. He resigned as County |
0_4 | Commissioner in 1971, when the City of Spokane began preparing to host the 1974 World's Fair. While |
0_5 | he was initially named as the Director of Public Relations, he was later appointed to serve as the |
0_6 | Vice President of Exhibitor and Guest Relations. At that time, he established the public relations |
0_7 | consulting firm of Jack Geraghty and Associates. In 1975, he founded the short-lived weekly |
0_8 | newspaper, known as The Falls. In 1992, he was elected as the 39th mayor of the city, serving from |
0_9 | 1993 to 1998. In 2011, he was honored as a member of the University of Washington Department of |
0_10 | Communication's Alumni Hall of Fame. |
0_11 | Personal background |
0_12 | Early life and family |
0_13 | John "Jack" Vincent Geraghty, Jr. was born on February 23, 1934, in Seattle, Washington and raised |
0_14 | in Spokane. He is the son of John Vincent and Gladys Ida (née Johnson) Geraghty, Sr. His father |
0_15 | worked in advertising as art director and account executive on staff with Spokane-area agencies for |
0_16 | over 45 years. He was also a commercial water color artist and a member of the Spokane Water Color |
0_17 | Society. Geraghty's siblings include brothers Michael and Thomas, and sisters Kathleen Whitbeck and |
0_18 | Mary Sturm. |
0_19 | Geraghty is a third-generation Irish American. His great grandparents immigrated to the US from |
0_20 | County Mayo, Ireland in 1880, when his grandfather, James M. Geraghty, was ten years old. His |
0_21 | grandfather served as Spokane's City Attorney and member of the Washington State House of |
0_22 | Representatives from the 3rd legislative district. Ironically, while Geraghty's grandfather served |
0_23 | as Spokane's City Attorney during the first decade of the 20th century, Geraghty served as the |
0_24 | mayor of the city during the last decade. In 1933, his grandfather was appointed to the Washington |
0_25 | State Supreme Court, by Governor Clarence D. Martin. |
0_26 | Education |
0_27 | Geraghty attended North Central High School, graduating in 1952. His extracurricular activities |
0_28 | included participating in writing, editing, and producing the North Central News student newspaper. |
0_29 | In 1997, he was honored as an inaugural recipient of the North Central High School Distinguished |
0_30 | Alumnus Award. Fellow recipients included former member of the National Transportation Safety Board |
0_31 | and NASA's Safety Advisory Group for Space Flight, Vernon L. Grose; US Congressman, George |
0_32 | Nethercutt; Jerry Sage, WWII prisoner of war portrayed by Steve McQueen in the movie, The Great |
0_33 | Escape; and musician Don Eagle, who toured with the USO during WWII and appeared in A Connecticut |
0_34 | Yankee in King Arthur's Court (with fellow-Spokanite Bing Crosby), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (with |
0_35 | Edward G. Robinson), and The Strip (with Mickey Rooney). |
0_36 | After high school, Geraghty enrolled at the University of Washington, where he was a member of the |
0_37 | Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He graduated in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. While |
0_38 | attending the University of Washington, he served as president of the school's student body and |
0_39 | worked on the staff of The Daily of the University of Washington student newspaper. He is a |
0_40 | lifetime member of the University of Washington's Alumni Association. In 2011, the Department of |
0_41 | Communication honored him with a membership to the Alumni Hall of Fame. |
0_42 | Military |
0_43 | Immediately following his graduation from college, Geraghty was drafted into the US Army and sent |
0_44 | to boot camp at Fort Ord in California. He was then sent to Washington D.C., where he utilized his |
0_45 | journalism degree by editing the Service Stripe military newspaper at Walter Reed Army Medical |
0_46 | Center. After two years in the Army, Geraghty returned to Spokane, serving another two years in the |
0_47 | Air Force Reserves. He was a Lieutenant, assigned to a post as the Public Information Officer in |
0_48 | the Air National Guard. |
0_49 | Marriage |
0_50 | On April 19, 1958, Geraghty married Marlene Curtis at St Paschal's Catholic Church in Spokane. |
0_51 | Together, they had four daughters, Marcella Maile, Sheila Geraghty, Brigid Krause, and Nora Boyle; |
0_52 | and seven grandchildren. Two of his grandsons are graduates of the University of Washington, while |
0_53 | another graduated from the Air Force Academy. While daughter Sheila is the business administrator |
0_54 | for the Salvation Army in Spokane, Brigid serves as the volunteer services manager for Catholic |
0_55 | Charities. Geraghty and his wife were separated in 1994 and divorced in 1997. |
0_56 | In 2001, Geraghty and Kerry Lynch were married by Father Gerard O'Leary at St Joseph's Church, |
0_57 | located in the countryside outside Limerick, Ireland. Geraghty and his wife share a common Irish |
0_58 | heritage. They have visited Ireland more than a dozen times and Limerick city every two years. They |
0_59 | have worked together in establishing and strengthening Spokane's Sister City relationship with |
0_60 | Limerick. They co-founded the Spokane Limerick Sister City Society and established the Friendly |
0_61 | Sons of St Patrick together. , Lynch continues to serve as the President of the Spokane-Limerick |
0_62 | Sister City Society. She is also the founder and president of the public relations consulting firm |
0_63 | of Alliance Pacific, Inc. and former communications director for Spokane Public Schools. He is the |
0_64 | stepfather of her daughters, Kaitlin Larson (BA: Gonzaga University, Masters of Communications and |
0_65 | Organizational Leadership: Gonzaga University) and Meghan Johnson (BA: Oregon State University, |
0_66 | MBA: Gonzaga University). He has three grandchildren through Kaitlin and her husband, Wes Larson. |
0_67 | Geraghty and his wife , they reside in southwest Spokane. |
0_68 | Professional background |
0_69 | Journalism |
0_70 | Following completion of his service with the Air National Guard, Geraghty was hired as a reporter |
0_71 | for the Spokane Daily Chronicle newspaper, which later merged with The Spokesman-Review. During his |
0_72 | work on staff at the Chronicle, he reported on news, events, activities, and the judicial process |
0_73 | at the Spokane County Courthouse. In 1975, following the success of Expo '74, Geraghty established |
0_74 | and began publishing a weekly newspaper known as The Falls, referring to the Spokane River, which |
0_75 | prominently passes through Riverfront Park and the central business district, flowing over the |
0_76 | Spokane Falls, just under the Monroe Street Bridge. After two years, the newspaper shut down, when |
0_77 | it was proven to be unsuccessful. Geraghty said of the venture, "That was really a tough go because |
0_78 | we were fighting the [daily newspaper in Spokane]. We were trying to emulate David Brewster and the |
0_79 | Seattle weekly he had. We didn't really have the base population to make it work. That's probably |
0_80 | one of my biggest disappointments." |
0_81 | County politics |
0_82 | In 1964, Geraghty was elected to the Spokane County Board of Commissioners. Just 29 years old, he |
0_83 | was the youngest county commissioner ever elected. During his time in office, he focused on |
0_84 | restructuring county departments. Following the 1953 demolition of the Public Health Building, |
0_85 | which was adjacent to the Spokane County Courthouse, the County built a modernized four-story annex |
0_86 | to house various departments. During this time, Geraghty successfully championed the consolidation |
0_87 | of the County Sheriff's department with the city's police and corrections functions in the new |
0_88 | Public Health Building. |
0_89 | Public relations |
0_90 | In 1971, Geraghty resigned his membership on the Spokane County Board of Commissioners, when he |
0_91 | established the corporate firm of Jack Geraghty and Associates, which provides consulting services |
0_92 | focusing on public relations, community studies, and public affairs. In preparation for Spokane's |
0_93 | hosting of the 1974 World's Fair, Geraghty was named as the Director of Public Relations of the |
0_94 | organizing committee. He was later appointed to serve as the Vice President of Exhibitor and Guest |
0_95 | Relations. In preparation for the fair, the local government demolished the downtown business |
0_96 | district, which was previously dominated by the Great Northern Railroad Depot. In addition to |
0_97 | serving as the founder of Jack Geraghty and Associates, Geraghty has served as Vice President and |
0_98 | senior advisor of Alliance Pacific, Inc., which was founded by his wife, Kerry Lynch. In his role |
0_99 | with both firms, he spearheaded several bond issues, which have resulted in the development of |
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