Longtime Northern Va. legislator Vincent F. Callahan Jr. dies at 82
By Matt Schudel September 20 at 1:52 PM
Vincent F. Callahan Jr., an influential Republican legislator who represented Fairfax County in the Virginia House of Delegates for 40 years and was a leading proponent of the interests of Northern Virginia in the state capitol, died Sept. 20 at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. He was 82.
The cause was meningitis and paralysis caused by the West Nile virus, according to a statement released by his wife, Virginia Weight Callahan.
Mr. Callahans long tenure in Richmond spanned two very different eras in the commonwealths political history. When he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1967, he was one of only 14 Republicans among the 100 delegates.
By the time he retired in 2008, the Republicans were in the majority in Richmond, and Mr. Callahan had been chairman of the Appropriations Committee for almost a decade. He was the first Republican in modern history to lead the powerful committee.
After joining the Appropriations Committee in 1972, Mr. Callahan worked with members of both parties to steer funding toward Northern Virginia, helping promote the growth of George Mason University and the commercial development of the Dulles corridor.
A lot of what you see in Northern Virginia today is there because of Vince, J. Kenneth Klinge, a GOP lobbyist who had known Mr. Callahan since 1965, said Saturday in an interview. I would call him a problem-solver. In order to solve problems, you have to work with people across the aisle.
Except for an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1976, Mr. Callahan seemed content to spend his entire political career in the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly. He made the 224-mile round trip from his home in McLean to Richmond hundreds of times.
Leaders of both political parties, including Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, U.S. senators Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine (both former Democratic governors) and Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), praised Mr. Callahans legislative acumen.
When Mr. Callahan entered the House of Delegates, Northern Virginia was a fast-growing region that was woefully underrepresented in a legislature dominated by Democrats from rural parts of the commonwealth. Nonetheless, he was able to engineer funding to support the building of Metro lines in Northern Virginia, Northern Virginia Community College, George Mason and the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.
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Longtime Northern Va. legislator Vincent F. Callahan Jr. dies at 82