Part of the family that politically ruled the 32nd Ward for decades, Dan Rostenkowski dies

Dan Rostenkowski, Noble St. resident, dies in his Lake Benedict, WI, home today at the age of 82. He was the son of Joseph who served as the 32nd Ward Alderman from 1931 to 1955 and as Ward Committeeman from 1936 to 1961.

Power wielding chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means from 1981-94, his eighteen term run as a U.S. Representative began in 1959. His defeat for a nineteenth term was the result of being accused of mail and wire fraud as well as witness tampering.

He was charged with 17 counts of corruption for misuse of public taxpayer funds. After losing his Congressional seat, he plead guilty to two counts of mail fraud in federal court and was sentenced to seventeen months in prison and fined $100,000.

Following prostate cancer surgery in May 1996, Rostenkowski began serving his seventeen month prison sentence at the Federal Medical Center for prisoners in Rochester, MN, in June 1996. He was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Married in 1951, Rostenkowski and his wife LaVerne had four daughters.