Rep. Peter Rodino, 95; Presided Over Nixon Impeachment Hearing

Born June 7, 1909, Peter Wallace Rodino Jr. was a Newark native whose father was an Italian immigrant toolmaker. The younger Rodino received a bachelor's degree from the University of Newark and was a 1937 graduate of what became Rutgers University law school.

Mr. Rodino, who learned oratory by reading Shakespeare with a mouth stuffed with marbles and stones, taught public speaking and citizenship classes in Newark before taking up the practice of law in the late 1930s.

He served in the Army in North Africa and Italy during World War II and was one of the first enlisted men to receive a battlefield commission as an officer. He was discharged as a captain in 1946, having been awarded the Bronze Star.

In 1946, he ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Fred A. Hartley Jr. (R-N.J.), co-author of the famed labor legislation called the Taft-Hartley Act of 1946. Mr. Rodino won the seat two years later, when Hartley decided not to run again.

Over the years, Mr. Rodino made his name through his strong constituent services policy and his work on veterans affairs and civil rights issues.

He supported landmark civil rights legislation in 1957 and was one of the primary sponsors of the Civil Rights Act of 1966. In the mid-1960s, he helped lead an effort to end immigration quotas and enact fair-housing standards. He wrote the 1982 extension to the Voting Rights Act.

He also took part in the House select committee hearings investigating the Iran-contra matter, in which U.S. officials covertly sold arms to Iran to win the release of U.S. hostages in the Middle East and used some of the profits to support Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras.

Mr. Rodino also played significant roles in making Columbus Day and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday national holidays.

Late in his legislative career, he helped lead impeachment proceedings against two U.S. District Court judges, Harry E. Claiborne of Nevada in 1986 and Alcee L. Hastings of Florida in 1988. Hastings later was elected to the House of Representatives.

After leaving Congress, Mr. Rodino taught at Seton Hall University law school, which houses his papers and memorabilia, including the desk and gavel he used during the Watergate hearings. During the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1999, Mr. Rodino delivered a series of well-attended lectures at the law school.

"There was not a single day of his professional life," said Seton Hall law school dean Patrick E. Hobbs, "when he didn't carry a copy of the Constitution in his pocket."

His first wife, Marianna Stango Rodino, whom he married in 1941, died in 1980.

Survivors include his second wife, Joy Rodino, whom he married in 1989, of West Orange; two children, Margaret Stanziale of West Orange and Peter Rodino III of Naples, Fla.; three granddaughters; and two great-granddaughters.

Staff writer Matt Schudel contributed to this report.