2025 -- S 0158

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2025

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

EXPRESSING DEEPEST CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF J. WILLIAM W.

HARSCH, ESQ.

     Introduced By: Senator Dawn M. Euer

     Date Introduced: February 03, 2025

     Referred To: Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar

     WHEREAS, It is with deep sadness that this Senate of the State of Rhode Island has

learned of the passing of J. William W. Harsch, Esq., a distinguished attorney and exemplary

public servant for six decades. He was the devoted husband of Constance Mann Harsch; and

     WHEREAS, William Harsch was born in Washington D.C., to Joseph Harsch and Anne

Wood Harsch. He attended the Beauvoir and St. Albans Schools, each a National Cathedral

School, and later attended the Pomfret School in Connecticut. Mr. Harsch graduated from

Williams College in 1960, and spent a year studying at Cambridge University in the United

Kingdom. After a year of distinguished service to our nation as a member of the United States

Army, Mr. Harsch proceeded to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1964; and

     WHEREAS, William Harsch’s public service career began in the mid-1960s when he

served on Capitol Hill as a staff member in the United States Congress. Mr. Harsch later accepted

a position to serve as the Director of Special Projects for MIT’s Urban Systems Laboratory,

where he promoted high-speed rail development in the Northeast Corridor with a foundation that

was established by former Rhode Island United States Senator Claiborne Pell and the former

president of Textron, G. William Miller; and

     WHEREAS, Thanks to his tireless work ethic, abiding integrity, and high intelligence,

Mr. Harsch was appointed by former Rhode Island Governor Philip Noel, to serve as the

Chairman of the State Public Utilities Commission and head of the State Energy Policy Office.

Mr. Harsch also served with distinction as the Executive Director of the New England Regional

Commission, where he coordinated key initiatives with the New England Governors; and

     WHEREAS, William Harsch was an enthusiastic supporter and key advisor to J. Joseph

Garrahy’s successful campaign for Governor, helping Governor Garrahy to formulate his ideas

and proposals for a new Department of Environmental Management. After Governor Garrahy

was elected, Mr. Harsch served as the first Director of the Rhode Island Department of

Environmental Management and in this capacity, Mr. Harsch worked with the Town of

Jamestown to establish Beavertail State Park; and

     WHEREAS, In 1977, President Jimmy Carter asked Mr. Harsch to serve as his Deputy

Associate Director in the Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Harsch played a key role in the

development and creation of FEMA in 1978, and the enactment and implementation of the

Energy Security Act of 1980, which included the important concepts of energy conservation and

alternative energy production; and

     WHEREAS, At the end of the Carter administration, Mr. Harsch joined the law firm of

Powers & McAndrew, which eventually became the Providence office of the New England Law

Partnership. Mr. Harsch later managed the law firm’s Washington office, where he focused on

litigating energy rate cases before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and

     WHEREAS, William Harsch returned to Rhode Island permanently in the 1990s where

he established a thriving practice that specialized in environmental law, representing citizens

groups and municipalities. Among his many notable achievements, Mr. Harsch successfully

represented the Town of North Kingstown against a proposal to place an incinerator at Quonset,

won a legal battle to bring clean water to Pascoag residents who had been receiving contaminated

water for six months, and won a landmark free speech case on behalf of a North Kingstown

woman who was sued by a group of developers for speaking out against a landfill that posed a

threat to the Town’s drinking water supply; and

     WHEREAS, Mr. Harsch’s extensive public service career also included serving on the

Board of the Quonset Development Corporation, and served as the Vice Chair of the Rhode

Island Ethics Commission. Mr. Harsch also ran twice for the office of Rhode Island Attorney

General. In his free time, he enjoyed spending time at the Ocean, swimming at all times,

regardless of the temperature, as well as sailing, rowing, gardening, reading about history and

spending time with his family; and

     WHEREAS, In addition to his wife, Constance, William Harsch leaves behind his

children, Joseph Close Harsch II, Christiana Wood Harsch, and Elizabeth Fowler Harsch-Fricker,

and his grandchildren, Kyle Scotland Harsch, Joseph Close Harsch, III, and William Steelman

Fricker. Mr. Harsch also leaves behind his daughter-in-law Sonja Harsch, son-in-law Paul

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Fricker, and his brothers Jonathan H. Harsch and Paul A. Harsch, III; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby expresses its deepest

condolences to the Harsch Family on the passing of J. William W. Harsch, Esq.; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Constance Mann Harsch and Family.

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