Former Davenport mayor Thom Hart dies at 70

It’s an occupational hazard for someone who grew up as one of 20 kids, served as a six-year Davenport mayor, county supervisor, employee of state and regional economic development groups, Democratic party leader and was a regular attendee at mass.

Hart knew a lot of people in Davenport, and he never turned down a chance to make the connections he cherished.

“You wouldn’t be able to eat,” Hart’s daughter, Mary-Kathryn Hart, said. “It would be a three-hour ordeal. People would come up to the table and talk to him or he’d see somebody and say hello, and then there’d be a story, and then there’d be another story…

“I think dad really thrived on building those personal, interpersonal human connections.”

Thomas W. Hart, 70, died Wednesday, Jan. 24, at Genesis Medical Center, East Campus, surrounded by his family, according to his obituary.   

Hart, as his obituary states, was the “ninth blessing of 20 children.” He frequently discussed ideas with his siblings, Mary-Kathryn said; he believed having so many people in-house to bounce ideas off of was a key to his success in government and economic development. He stayed in their four-bedroom East Rusholme Street house, and raised his children there, where he grew up. 

Hart ran for city council at an early age, and voters elected him to represent Davenport’s 4th Ward at just 20 years old in 1973 while he was a student at St. Ambrose College, making him the youngest elected official in Iowa at the time.

He met his future wife Jane Domeraski, whom Mary-Kathryn said was the greatest love of his life, at St. Ambrose. They married in 1976.

In 1978, voters elected Hart to the County Board of Supervisors. Then, the mayor’s office in 1985. He started his three-term, six-year tenure in 1986.

During his six years as mayor, he advocated for riverboat gambling as a way to spur new public and private construction downtown and along the riverfront. The city also primed the 53rd Street and I-74 area for development, which is now a bustling commercial hub in Davenport. In 1991, voters retired him in favor of Pat Gibbs. 

A 1987 Times editorial endorsing Hart in his reelection campaign wrote his leadership style was “quietly competent” and praised his vision for downtown and riverfront development.

“He hasn’t been the kind of mayor who is flamboyant or overflowing with charisma. But Thom Hart has been quietly competent,” the editorial said.

In that same vein, Mary-Kathryn said her father kept an aphorism commonly said by the 26th U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt on his desk: “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”

People who worked with him agree. He didn’t need to take credit for accomplishments, just worked to get things done for the Quad-Cities, said Bill Davis, former Scott County attorney who campaigned and worked with Hart at the county level.

“Thom did not always step in the limelight,” said former state Sen. Pat Deluhery, who represented central Davenport for 24 years and was Hart’s neighbor on Rusholme Street.

Deluhery remembers, in particular, Hart’s efforts to design and enforce rules for transporting wind turbine blades. It didn’t draw headlines, but the seemingly mundane rules to, for example, transport the giant blades only during the day accompanied by a second vehicle, were essential to anticipating and preventing deadly accidents and overcome opposition to ensure wind could power the state’s energy grid, Deluhery said. 

“There’s a lot of political and economic interests that stand in the way of getting something like that done,” Deluhery said. “Thom Hart is the reason that something like that got done in the state of Iowa.” 

Hart joined the Quad Cities Development Group, and led the organization from 2000-2006, according to Quad-City Times archives. He’d also served on the state’s Iowa Transportation Commission, including as its chairman.

John Gardner, a former Quad-City Times publisher, hired Hart at the Quad Cities Development Group and recommended Hart to succeed him as its leader. Gardner called Hart the smartest man in town, someone who led expertly and with empathy. 

During Hart’s time at the development group, a key project was advocating to keep jobs at the Rock Island Arsenal, which has been among the largest employers for the Quad-Cities for decades. 

“Thom was a long-range thinker, and he was committed to whatever was good for one community was good for all of the Quad-Cities,” Gardner said. “He showed that in his work within the city and with the county. He was also a very smart tactician. He knew the right people and connected them to make the right decisions.”

Thom retired a final time in 2012 from the Iowa Department of Economic Development. 

Active in county Democratic politics, he chaired the county party for several years. He would often host campaign interns during the caucus cycle, Mary-Kathryn said, who she said he’d refer to as his “young friends” and he would keep in touch with. 

“Anybody who met dad kind of got brought into an inner circle almost like another family member,” Mary-Kathryn said. “He would check on people long after he had heard from them.”

A memorial mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, downtown Davenport. The mass will be live streamed at www.hmdfuneralhome.com. A visitation will be held 4-7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9 at the Halligan-McCabe-Devries Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Empowering Abilities.