http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bal-md.ob.arnick14jun14,0,6390604.story?coll=bal-news-obituaries
From the Baltimore Sun
John S. Arnick, 72, longtime state delegate from Dundalk
By Jacques Kelly
Sun reporter
June 14, 2006
John S. Arnick, a Dundalk lawyer and former Marine who was elected nine
times to the House of Delegates and had been its majority leader in the
1970s, died of lung cancer yesterday afternoon at Johns Hopkins
Hospital. He was 72.
Mr. Arnick had resigned from the legislature in April to accept an
appointment by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to the Maryland State Board
of Contract Appeals.
"John was a personal friend and a hard-working colleague in the House
of Delegates, a job he did well for the better part of the last 40
years," Mr. Ehrlich said yesterday. "He was deeply committed to public
service, and his dedication will be missed."
Colleagues remembered Mr. Arnick as a shrewd, articulate legislator, a
quick wit and a behind-the-scenes Annapolis problem-solver who wore
custom-tailored suits and drove fancy cars.
"He was a man of strong convictions," said state Sen. Norman R. Stone
Jr., a fellow Baltimore County Democrat. "He was well known for his
knowledge of the law."
"He was a man of his word," said Louis L. DePazzo, a former Baltimore
County councilman. "He fought for his clients, and he fought for his
friends. You could depend on him to do what he said."
"He was a very opinionated man," said former Baltimore County Executive
Dennis F. Rasmussen. "It was clear where he stood on issues."
Born in Baltimore and raised on Dunhill Road in Dundalk, he was a 1951
graduate of Calvert Hall College High School and earned a bachelor's
degree in industrial management at the University of Baltimore. He
served in the Marine Corps from 1956 to 1959, then returned to UB and
earned his law degree in 1962.
Mr. Arnick later described his military training and high school
education as being invaluable to surviving controversy and adversity in
politics.
"I'm not certain who had better punches, the drill instructors or the
brothers at Calvert Hall," he told a reporter in 1994 after staging one
of his electoral comebacks.
"But I also derived a lot of strength from my parents, both of whom
worked in a factory and pipe mill all of their lives for us," he said
of himself and his sister.
In the mid-1960s, Mr. Arnick was ushered into State House politics by
Roy N. Staten, an old-line Dundalk political boss who had been Senate
majority leader.
He was elected to the House in 1966, and by early 1969 was chosen as
chairman of the Baltimore County delegation.
Mr. Arnick was completing his third term, including eight years as
majority leader, when he rolled the political dice and lost in a bid
for a state Senate seat in 1978. He won election to the House again in
1982, and was twice re-elected -- surviving a contested 1990 Democratic
primary for the District 7 seat by a mere six votes.
He stepped down in 1993 for an appointment as a Baltimore County
District Court judge, and gave up his law practice -- a move that
proved temporary when a dispute erupted.
A Maryland Senate confirmation vote that was expected to be a formality
turned into a slugfest amid allegations that Mr. Arnick had made vulgar
and sexist comments about women during a dinner meeting with two female
lobbyists a year earlier.
For 10 days, the 1993 General Assembly was paralyzed over the question
of whether the Senate should confirm the judicial appointment of Mr.
Arnick, who had taken his seat on the bench. Articles in The Sun
reported that most lawmakers supported their old friend and seemed
stunned by the public outrage over his nomination.
Mr. Arnick resigned the judgeship amid the dispute.
The Baltimore County Democratic Central Committee returned him to the
legislature in October 1993, weeks after Edward G. "Nipper" Schafer --
who had been named by the committee to fill Mr. Arnick's vacated seat
in the House of Delegates -- died of a heart attack during a softball
game in Towson.
In a sometimes rambling address to the committee members filling the
vacancy, Mr. Arnick apologized for his remarks to the women -- comments
that he called "a 30-second chunk of my life."
"I've apologized once before, and I will apologize a second time here
tonight," he said. "I offer no excuses. I tried to explain those 30
seconds, but there were those who just didn't want to listen."
After the politicians embraced Mr. Arnick, Dundalk-area voters followed
suit to keep him in the House for three more terms, in the elections of
1994, 1998 and 2002.
"As you all know," he told fellow legislators at the beginning of the
1994 session, "I've been in and out of here more times than Billy
Martin managing the Yankees."
Mr. Arnick credited his electoral success to his habit of stopping by a
Dundalk coffee shop each morning.
"People really know me because I do things like go to the Dunkin'
Donuts every morning," Mr. Arnick told a Sun reporter. "I meet a
teacher, a cop, a construction worker, a doctor. We talk and, if I can,
I help them. Around here, actions speak louder than words."
In recent years, Mr. Arnick unsuccessfully championed a ban on driving
while chatting on cellular phones.
"He was the authority in the House on rules and procedures," said
Baltimore County Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder. "The speaker of the
House looked to John whenever there was a hangup on some technicality."
Mr. Arnick had last worked at his new Board of Contract Appeals office
May 1, his family said. He felt ill on May 5 and collapsed at his home.
Funeral plans were incomplete.
Survivors include his wife of seven years, Joanne Tribble; two
stepdaughters, Suzanne Kaplan of Timonium and Erin Tribble of Oakland,
Calif.; and a sister, Eleanor Craig of Dundalk. Marriages to the former
Janet Eckman and Joan Nielsen ended in divorce.
jacques.kelly@baltsun.com
Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun