Stephen R. Wojdak, a one-time lawmaker who managed to have his biggest impact on Pennsylvania government and politics for years after he left office, died this week in Boston.
Wojdak, 76, had become ill during a vacation trip to Martha's Vineyard, and died on Tuesday after being hospitalized. Funeral services are scheduled for Monday in Bryn Mawr.
He never lived in Harrisburg.
But his work representing the interests of a wide variety of clients before the power players in state government made him one of the Capitol City's major behind-the-scenes players for many years.
An attorney by trade, Wojdak was recruited to run for the state House of Representatives by Philadelphia ward leaders in 1968, and quickly rose to become the chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
His promising political career - which many felt could have led to Congress or higher - was cut short in 1976, when the taint of an ethics allegation, led to his narrow defeat in a race for a state Senate seat.
The ethics case was ultimately dropped.
But having been bitten by the policy-making bug, Wojdak made some choices that parlayed that setback into the formation of one of Harrisburg's first major contract lobbying firms.
At the time, companies, trade association and other institutions tended to lobby through internal staff.
Wojdak, tapping his client-rich Philadelphia base and his accumulated knowledge of how state government worked, literally created the lobbyist-for-hire business in the state.
"He really was a guy who could get things done in Harrisburg, which is why people hired him," said Stan Rapp, who watched Wojdak's work first as a legislative staffer, and later as a lobbyist rival.
A partial list of Wojdak-worked initiatives:
* Helping to represent casino interests in the legalization of slots across Pennsylvania.
* Procuring key state funding for new professional sports stadiums.
* Making sure inner-city hospitals that provided more than their share of charity care received state off-set.
He even helped get beer into Pizza Huts.
A 2001 Patriot-News survey of elected officials, top legislative and gubernatorial staffers had Wojdak ranked as the second-most effective lobbyist in the state, trailing only Rapp's Greenlee Partners.
The writer, Peter DeCoursey, noted the results could have been reversed had that not been such a Republican era.
Among Wojdak's noted strengths at the time:
"Knows government appropriations and processes like a wine steward knows vintages. One House member called his firm 'a shadow government capable of devising their own proposals, complete with legal, political analysis, comparable to what a cabinet secretary would get from their department.'"
He did not win every battle, But his ideas, Rapp noted, were more often than not grounded in hard-nosed assessments of what could reasonably be expected to be passed by the state House and Senate.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell on Friday recalled some key advice he received from Wojdak about state government after hiring his firm to help represent the city's interests in Harrisburg in the 1990s, when Rendell was mayor.
"He told us we had to take care of our own (fiscal) house first. We did, and then things started to flow from the Legislature," Rendell said. "He was the best of the breed, and that's why I hired him."
Steve Crawford, a former Rendell aide who now serves as Managing Vice President of the Wojdak firm, said Wojdak loved the work because he was able to have an impact on many issues and causes, while maintaining a schedule that left him time for his family.
That was partly the reason why he never felt the need to resurrect his own political career, Crawford said.
A Scranton-area native who relocated to Philadelphia for law school at Penn and stayed, Wojdak is survived by his wife, Eilzabeth; children Krista, Jessica, Stacy, Madelyn and Nicholas; and five grandchildren.
A viewing is scheduled for 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Chadwick & McKinney Funeral Home in Ardmore. A funeral mass is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday at Our Mother of Good Counsel Church in Bryn Mawr.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, 230 East Ohio Street, Suite 304, Chicago, IL 60611, or online at www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org.