Marty Weinberg, retired attorney, former city solicitor, and longtime political power broker, has died at 89
“I don’t think I could have been as successful as I have been in my political career without a Marty Weinberg,” former Mayor Frank Rizzo said in 1987.
Marty Weinberg, 89, of Bala Cynwyd, longtime attorney and retired chair of the Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP law firm, onetime city solicitor and assistant district attorney, 1999 mayoral candidate, popular political strategist and behind-the-scenes power broker, former associate professor of law at Drexel University, mentor, and sports star at South Philadelphia High School, died Tuesday, Oct. 6, of pneumonia at Bryn Mawr Hospital.
Born and reared in South Philadelphia, Mr. Weinberg earned his law degree at Temple University in 1961 and worked for four years as a city assistant district attorney and six years as an associate professor of law at Drexel. He joined the 1971 mayoral campaign of fellow South Philadelphian Frank Rizzo as deputy campaign manager and rose to campaign manager and Rizzo confidant for the 1975, 1983, and 1991 reelection bids.
In 1971, a month before he was elected mayor, Rizzo told The Inquirer that Mr. Weinberg, then 34, was his go-to guy when he needed help. “I talk to everybody who comes in,” Rizzo said. “I listen for a while, and if I decide he’s goofy, I open the door and yell ‘Marty.’”
As Rizzo’s city solicitor from 1972 to ‘74, Mr. Weinberg negotiated labor contracts, litigated a ban on the sale of horse meat, reduced the number of city consultants, battled Tinicum Township over tax revenue from Philadelphia International Airport, and juggled other thorny legal and political issues. In 1976, former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo told The Inquirer that Mr. Weinberg was “the most personable and intelligent of the men around Rizzo.”
In 1987, Rizzo told The Inquirer: “If anybody was to ask me who, next to my family, was my dearest friend, I’d have to say Weinberg. … I don’t think I could have been as successful as I have been in my political career without a Marty Weinberg.”
Mr. Weinberg also served as chair of the Democratic City Committee from 1976 to 1980, was longtime counsel to the Philadelphia Gas Works, and appointed by Gov. Tom Ridge to the state’s Court of Judicial Discipline in 1996.
He finished second to former Mayor John F. Street in the 1999 Democratic primary for mayor and told The Inquirer: “All my life I’ve wanted to be the mayor of the city. I thought I would be the best mayor.”
He advised many candidates, both Democratic and Republican, during heated campaigns over six decades, and got entangled in various political intrigues and controversies. He considered but declined to run for the state Supreme Court in 2001 partly because, he told The Inquirer, political campaign strategy was his thing. “I think that’s what drives me more than anything else,” he said.
He joined Obermayer in 1974 and specialized in administrative and regulatory law. He was especially adept, his wife, Martha, said, “at bringing people together.”
His caricature hung on the wall with other Philly notables at the old Palm Restaurant on Broad Street, and his name appeared in newspaper society pages nearly as often as political columns. He retired a few years ago.
Mr. Weinberg graduated from South Philadelphia High School in 1955. He played second base on the baseball team and started a legendary triple play that helped clinch the 1954 city championship. He was the all-star captain of the 1954-55 basketball team, played against future Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain, and earned a basketball scholarship to Drexel.
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He was inducted into the Drexel Alumni Hall of Fame in 1994. “People said he was so honest,” his son, Bernard, said. “When he was running for mayor, people would see me and say, ‘You’re honest Abe’s son,’ referring, of course, to Abraham Lincoln. And I knew what they meant.”
Martin Weinberg was born March 27, 1937. He grew up at Ninth and Shunk Streets in South Philadelphia, and was the youngest of three sons.
His father, Emanuel, was a Democratic City Councilmember from 1957 to 1966, and Mr. Weinberg accompanied him often to political meetings, rallies, and the polls on Election Day. In 1975, Mr. Weinberg told The Inquirer that his father’s doctor told the elder Weinberg that he should quit politics, move to Arizona, and monitor his serious heart condition.
Mr. Weinberg said: “My father said, ‘Hell, doc, I’d rather die a politician in Philadelphia than live another 10 years in Phoenix.’”
Mr. Weinberg took ballet classes as a boy, he told The Inquirer, and earned a bachelor’s degree at Drexel in 1958. He married Carol Wenit, and they had a daughter, Barbara, and a son, Bernard. After a divorce, he married Mary Ellen Leonard. She died in 2005.
He married Sandra Schultz Newman in 2007, and that union was annulled seven months later. Newman died in February.
Mr. Weinberg married Martha Shaw on Oct. 10, 2010, at 10:10 a.m., and they lived in Bala Cynwyd. He doted on his family and was a die-hard Phillies and Eagles fan.
“He was a fiercely loving, loyal, and protective father,” his daughter said. “He always wanted to be there for us.”
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His wife said: “He loved to create memories that made good stories, and he was such a good storyteller. My mother called him a hoot. To me, he was larger than life.”
In addition to his wife, children, and first former wife, Mr. Weinberg is survived by his daughter-in-law Jaimie, two grandsons, six great-grandchildren, and other relatives. Two brothers died earlier.
Private services were held earlier.
Donations in his name may be made to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, 2361 Hylan Blvd., Staten Island, N.Y. 10306.
