Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Journal Gazette
INDIANAPOLIS – Former Indiana and national Democratic Party leader Gordon St. Angelo has died at age 84.
Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers said St. Angelo died Tuesday at an Indianapolis hospital.
St. Angelo started a decade as state Democratic chairman in 1964 after running Roger Branigin’s successful campaign for governor. He also played major campaign roles for Sens. Birch Bayh and Vance Hartke.
St. Angelo was the party’s deputy national chairman in 1968 and narrowly lost a bid for national chairman in 1973.
Marion County Democratic chairman Ed Treacy told The Indianapolis Star that St. Angelo ran a clothing store in his southern Indiana hometown Huntingburg when he became active in John Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign.
He later was an executive for the Indianapolis-based Friedman Foundation and the Lilly Endowment.
Indiana Democrats offered condolences in a written statement issued Wednesday morning by Chairman Dan Parker:
“During his decade as State Chair, Gordon St. Angelo worked hard to elect Democrats nationally and in Indiana, and we offer our condolences on his passing.
“As anyone who has ever held a job in politics will tell you, the hours are long and the thanks are few and far between, but the work is critical to the American democratic process. Hoosiers owe Gordon a debt of gratitude for the time he spent pursuing the causes he believed in.”
