Political Legend Tom Vandergriff Dies at 84

NBCDFW ^ | Updated 5:30 PM CST, Thu, Dec 30, 2010 | Elvira Sakmari

[nralife]

Long-time North Texas politician Tom Vandergriff died Thursday at the age of 84.

Vandergriff's political career spanned 55 years. He first served as mayor of Arlington from 1951 to 1977. Vandergriff was just 25 when he was elected to office and was given the title "Boy Mayor."

Vandergriff was considered the driving force responsible for luring the General Motors Assembly Plant and the Texas Rangers to Arlington. He was honored with a statue in center field, known as Vandergriff Plaza.

According to the Star-Telegram, Vandergriff's list of accomplishments in Arlington also include securing land for Lake Arlington, spearheading the creation of Six Flags Over Texas and raising money to build Arlington Memorial Hospital, the city's first real hospital.

[nralife]

One of the last of the honest Democrats. Swept from Congress after one term during the Republican Revolution. May he RIP.

[GeronL]

He was definitely in favor of government control and taxing the poor to benefit the city. Definitely not someone who liked individual freedom too much.

[nralife]

Well, the 70s were a bit before my coming of age. At least politically. He was mayor until 1977. From what I remember, he was always well liked back then.

[GeronL]

Of course he was well liked. He brought in the big ticket bacon and paid for it with future money.

[Qwackertoo]

I always remember passing by Vandergriff Chevrolet on Collins. I still return to Arlington to visit family but don’t know if any of the dealership bear his name anymore.

When our family moved to Arlington in the fall of ‘74 the population was maybe 50K . . . I don’t know what it is now and we lived off Cooper & I-20 and Cooper was a two lane road and Bowen was a two lane pig trail. LOL Boy have things changed. I knew, shortly after McD’s opened and I was just a kid/teenager . . . that our family should have bought a lot of land. I think there was a old couple that owned land where The Parks Mall is now located and they held out and held out for YEARS but he or she was blind and said, nope I know my way around this house and wouldn’t sell. I guess maybe their kids did or the surviving spouse finally did.

[Qwackertoo]

I’m not a fan of Arlington Memorial Hospital. My grandmother passed away there in ‘87 and then my Mother passed away there in ‘06 . . . on a happier note, I did have two nephews born there. IF I lived there and got sick, I’d go over to Harris in Ft. Worth.

[misanthrope]

I was born there in the early 60s.

[The Comedian]

Any obituary with a (D) in it is fine with me.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[BlueDragon]

Of course he was well liked. He brought in the big ticket bacon and paid for it with future money.

For a very long time, Arlington had extremely low residential property tax rates, because he brought in big-ticket industrial taxPAYERS.

Please don't lay all the blame at Vandergriff's feet for debts incurred AFTER he was mayor. He was voted out in '77, but new neighborhoods, roads, schools, fire stations, police substations etc., were NOT "voted out" in '77.

The city continued to grow, outstripping it's own tax base, long after Vandergriff wasn't necessarily in charge.