WASHINGTON -- Thomas G. 'Tommy the Cork' Corcoran, a Washington institution who rose to power as Franklin D. Roosevelt's personal troubleshooter and fixer, died Sunday. He was 80.
Corcoran, who had been in good health and who had kept active as a lawyer and lobbyist, died at the Washington Hospital Center of a pulmonary embolism following gall bladder surgery, a family spokesman said.
Corcoran, as FDR's liaison to Capitol Hill, cajoled, persuaded and bullied a recalcitrant Congress into passing Roosevelt's liberal and far-reaching legislation that formed the New Deal.
In addition to FDR, Corcoran worked for Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and helped form the Flying Tigers, which kept the Chinese supplied with materials until the United States entered World War II.
Until his death, Corcoran's Washington law firm -- Corcoran, Youngman and Rowe -- dealt with a long list of top corporate clients including Tenneco and large New York insurance companies, and he used his experience to lobby on their behalf.
Corcoran was born Dec. 29, 1900, in Pawtucket, R.I. His father, a lawyer, was the son of an Irish immigrant, his mother the descendent of a pre-revolution New England family.
'My father always used to say that a boy who did not take the politics of his father and the religion of his mother was either a victim of child abuse or a filial ingrate,' Corcoran once said. He was a Democrat and a Roman Catholic.
At 12, he peddled newspapers; at 15, he worked on a farm for 15 cents an hour, led a strike for better pay and was fired.
From public high school in Pawtucket, he worked his way through Brown University and then enrolled in Harvard Law School. To build up income he gave lectures -- at $2 a head -- on how to pass tough exams.
His law school professor Felix Frankfurter was instrumental in his appointment as secretary to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1926. Corocron called the job 'one of the greatest periods in my life. I learned more from him than any history book.'
When the clerkship expired, he joined a New York law firm and specialized in corporate law, stock mergers and issuances. In 1932, at the request of Federal Reserve Board Governor Eugene Meyer, he returned to Washington as counsel to the newly created Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
There, he got involved in politics and worked on the Federal Housing Act. House Speaker Sam Rayburn then asked him for help with the Securities Act, which faced a tough congressional fight. It was through Rayburn he met Ben Cohen.
Together, Corcoran and Cohen became known as 'The Whiz Kids' and 'The Gold Dust Twins.'
'They were the greatest team I've every seen,' civil rights lawyer Joe Rauh once said. 'What Tommy did in the 1930s was one of the great legal and political performances of all time.'
They soon became part of FDR's 'brain trust' and took on the majority of the president's tough jobs. Corcoran was the White House premier odd jobber, legman, expediter, armtwister and speechwriter.
Together, the 'Twins' wrote and pushed through Congress the Stock Exchange Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Securities and Exchange Act, the Public Utility Holding Act and others that completely transformed American life.
'Tommy was far more to Roosevelt than simply a hatchet man,' said lawyer David Ginsburg. 'He was solace, support, adviser and entertainer.'
The turning point in Corcoran's White House career came when he sought the job of solicitor general. According to Rauh, he got four Supreme Court justices to sign a letter to Roosevelt urging the appointment.
Frankfurter, who Corcoran had helped place on the court, refused to sign. The appointment was never made. And the breach with Frankfurter never healed.
Corcoran left the White House in 1941 to form China Defense Supplies; lend-lease to China and a thriving law practice. With Claire Chenault, he organized the Flying Tigers to keep the Chinese supplied until America entered the war.
His law practice grew and flourished. His dealings on behalf of large oil compaies and pharmaceutiical firms produced congressional wrath, and his law firm was investigated four times by Congress. Each time he emerged unscathed.
Corcoran is survived by his sons, Thomas Jr. of Washington; Dr. David of Bethesda, Md.; Howard of Potomac, Md.; and Christopher of Newfoundland, Canada; one daughter, Cecily Kihn of Philadelphia, and six grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
