ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Jim Molloy, longtime chairman at Congressional FCU who as Doorkeeper of the U.S. House of Representatives gave the annual invocation at CUNA’s Government Affairs Conference, died here Tuesday at 75 from complications of diabetes.
James Molloy rose from south Buffalo’s Democratic ward politics to Washington’s highest levels as Doorkeeper for the House, along the way befriending former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, President Ronald Reagan and Rep. Hugh Carey, who became New York’s governor. He was doorkeeper for six presidents.
Molloy was the last of 30 people to hold the position of Doorkeeper from its establishment in 1789 to its elimination in 1994. Within this capacity, he introduced Presidents and heads of state to Congress, and coordinated 71 joint sessions and many other events within the House chamber.
Molloy oversaw a House staff of almost 400 from 1974 until the Republicans took over the House in 1994 and the 215-year-old post was abolished. In 2006 the U.S. Post Office named a building in his native Buffalo after him.
The genial Molloy, who served 30 years as chairman of the board of Congressional FCU, will best be remembered among credit unions for kicking off the GAC, which he did for more than a dozen years.
