John Roney, longtime parliamentarian in R.I. Senate, dies at 80

PROVIDENCE — Noted for his sage advice, intellect and quick wit, longtime state Senate parliamentarian John Roney died Monday at age 80 after an illness.

“The profession is lessened by his passing.... He was exactly what a lawyer should be. He was an outstanding advocate,” former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams said Tuesday.

Williams met Roney 40 years ago, when they were on opposite sides of an eviction case. At the time, Roney worked for Rhode Island Legal Services.

“We became fast friends,” Williams said.

While working for Rhode Island Legal Services — an organization he remained committed to throughout his career — Roney championed civil-rights cases on behalf of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable, said Robert B. Mann, who who shared a practice with him for several years.

“He was an inspiration to me,” Mann said. Roney embodied the vision of a lawyer driven by a cause during the tumultuous 1960s, he said.

A native of Washington, D.C., Roney came to Rhode Island as a student at Providence College. He worked as a reporter for The Journal in its Cranston bureau for a year or so after he got out of PC, former Journal reporter and URI professor Linda Lotridge Levin recalled.

“John was a lot of fun and a good reporter,” she said in an email. Much later, when she and former Journal Executive Editor Thomas Heslin formed the freedom-of-information coalition ACCESS-RI, “one of the first people I contacted was then-state Senator John Roney to join our founding group, which he did.”

Roney left Rhode Island to earn a degree from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, then returned to work at Rhode Island Legal Services after doing a stint in the organization’s D.C. office, said his daughter, Carley Roney.

“He was fighting for social justice,” Carley Roney said. She recalled the family spending Christmas and Thanksgiving helping out at the McAuley House soup kitchen after they moved to Fox Point, a neighborhood her father dearly loved.

Perhaps her strongest and best memory was her father waking her up on the night of a super moon (another of which graced the sky Monday night).

“He said, `Let’s go for a sail,’” she said.

In 1983, he teamed up with civil-rights lawyer Lynette Labinger to form Roney & Labinger, a practice the maintained for more than three decades until his retirement in 2018.

Roney was elected in 1994 as a Democratic state senator representing Providence, a position he held for eight years, rising to vice chairman of the Finance and Judiciary committees.

Former Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed, who was elected that same year, said Roney was most proud of his work revising the Uniform Commercial Code.

“He managed to bridge a lot of points of view in the legislature,” Labinger said.

In 2005, he returned to the Senate as its parliamentarian.

“In addition to being a friend, his advice was invaluable to me throughout my career,” Paiva-Weed said, adding, “He gave it to us straight.”

Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio agreed. “He fiercely defended the institution of the legislature, and his legacy will benefit Rhode Islanders for generations to come,” Ruggerio said in an email. “Both as a colleague and as parliamentarian, John could always be counted on by the members of the Senate for his sound advice and his trusted friendship.”

Carley Roney said she’s been moved by friends her father “collected” through the years.

“He had time for you. He just is a guy who would show up for anyone,” she said.

In addition to Carley, of New York, who is co-founder of the wedding planning website The Knot, Roney leaves his wife, Barbara Roney, of Providence and Tiverton; a son, Christopher Roney, in Maine; stepdaughter Kristina Lowell, in Maryland; and many grandchildren. kmulvane@ providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @kmulvane