NARP Blog

Monday, December 22, 2008

The passenger train lost another friend last week—James Brunkenhoefer, longtime National Legislative Director of the United Transportation Union, December 19, a day after suffering a major stroke. He was 61.

I was at the funeral this morning, along with a railroad industry who’s who list. Here’s a partial list: BNSF Chairman Matt Rose and VP—Federal Affairs Amy Hawkins, Union Pacific Vice President External Relations Michael Rock and his predecessor Mary McAuliffe, CSX Director Federal Affairs Anne Chettle Reinke; Norfolk Southern’s Steve Anthony; AAR President Ed Hamberger and Senior Vice President, Government Affairs Hubert K. “Obie” O’Bannon; House Transportation & Infrastructure Chairman Jim Oberstar, Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman, National Transportation Safety Board Member Deborah Hersman, Peter Rogoff a Senate Appropriations subcommittee veteran staffer, transportation consultants Tim Gillespie (of BGL Associates) and Ray Chambers, reporter Don Phillips, and of course a huge contingent from rail labor.

Known as “Brokenrail,” Jim hired out on the Southern Pacific, becoming a locomotive engineer by 1974. He became the United Transportation Union’s State Legislative Director for Texas in 1982, and had served since 1987 as the union’s National Legislative Director. He picked up his nickname from Texas railroad workers who could not pronounce Brunkenhoefer and proudly carried the nickname with him for the rest of his career.

He was praised for unswerving honesty, commitment to his family and the union, a general desire “to benefit and change lives,” and an impressive intellect. The latter was evident in his years as a front-line employee. He never stopped. He regularly carried The New York Times and other important dailies to Capitol Hill hearings. In connection with his commitment to helping people, the congregation this morning was asked “to do something kind and unexpected as an offering to Jim’s memory.”

He was not known for his clothing. Former House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster was quoted this morning as having said, “How can you be intimidated by someone who always looks like an unmade bed?” His attorney, Larry Mann: “He wore the damndest clothes. If he was walking down the street, you’d be tempted to offer him change.”

But as the UTU’s James Stem said, “He was a credit to every organization he accepted as his own, a credit to our transportation industry. He cared about the viability of our railroads. He was a man of unswerving energy and always on the move. He was our grand master.”

UTU International President Mike Futhey put it this way: “Our union lost a congressional lobbyist considered by his peers, by the lawmakers he lobbied, and by their senior staff as one of the most effective in Washington at his trade. Brokenrail prided himself on making friends for us on both sides of the congressional aisle. Whether explaining our issues to Democrats or Republicans, he was interested in only one result: Do they understand the issue from a UTU member’s perspective? He didn’t win all lawmakers over to our point of view, but he continued cultivating those who voted against us, recognizing that tomorrow is another day, and it is better to have friends in Congress than enemies. Brokenrail made for this union a lot of good friends in high places, which helped us to achieve many legislative and regulatory agency goals we might otherwise have failed to achieve. He will be sorely missed.”

He had a great sense of humor, well in evidence when he addressed the NARP Board years ago, and in this anecdote that Mann told this morning. Brokenrail was raised Catholic but converted to Judaism and married a Jewish woman. Mann once expressed doubts about his loyalty to Jewish dietary traditions. As Brokenrail downed a healthy serving of pork, Mann observed: “James, that is not kosher.” Jim’s response: “I’ve made a prayer over this chicken.”

The family requests that contributions in Broken Rail’s name be made to So Others Might Eat, a Washington, DC-based charity organization.

—Ross B. Capon
NARP President

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Remembering “Brokenrail”—lobbyist, advocate, and friend of passenger trains

Monday, December 22, 2008

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