Harold L. Caskey Esq, 32°
(Jan 3, 1938-Oct 1, 2015)
Member, Crescent Hill Masonic Lodge #368

2005 - 32° Consistory of Western Missouri, Kansas City

Member, Ararat Shrine

Occupation: Attorney, Missouri Senator

Retired State Senator Harold Leroy Caskey of Butler, Bates County, Missouri, passed away Thursday, October 1, 2015, at Shawnee Mission Hospital in Merriam, Kansas. Senator Caskey was 77 and had been in ill health with Parkinson’s Disease.

Senator Caskey was among the most veteran members of the Missouri General Assembly, winning election to seven terms representing Senate District 31. During his 28 years in the Senate, Senator Caskey sponsored and passed 327 pieces of legislation into law.

Long-time friends noted that Senator Caskey was all the more remarkable as an influential lawmaker because he was legally blind since the first grade because of an inherited retina condition, Infantile Macular Scarring. The condition also affected Senator Caskey’s sister and two of his three brothers. Because of his blindness, Senator Caskey could not perform many everyday tasks, such as driving, reading and recognizing friends except by their voices. But the condition added to Senator Caskey’s tenacity in life and as a legislator, as he always considered his blindness more of a nuisance than a handicap.

Despite his blindness, Senator Caskey was a high achiever in school, attending public elementary and secondary schools in Bates County and serving as senior class valedictorian. He graduated Magnum Cum Laude with dual majors in psychology and sociology from Central Missouri State University at Warrensburg, now the University of Central Missouri. Senator Caskey went on to earn a law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he was elected to the Order of Coif, with membership limited to the top 10 percent of law students.

Senator Caskey later said: "Throughout my schooling, I attended regular classes with fully-sighted students, relying on my memory and tape recorders to help make up for my inability to read. In law school, I took no notes, but went to lectures, not for verbatim memorization but for understanding."

After graduating from the MU School of Law, Senator Caskey in 1963 began the practice of law in the office of then-State Senator William Cason in Clinton. Senator Caskey opened his own law practice in Butler in 1965. He served as city attorney for the communities of Butler and Rich Hill. Senator Caskey’s first elected office was as Bates County Prosecuting Attorney, a post in which he served three terms. He also worked in academia, serving as an assistant professor in law enforcement and business education at Northeast Missouri State University, now Truman State University in Kirksville.

He was first elected senator in 1976 and retired from the Senate at the end of 2004 because of term limits. His Senate district included Bates, Cass, Henry, Johnson, Vernon and St. Clair counties in western and west-central Missouri. As a lawmaker, Senator Caskey handled bills dealing with education, criminal justice and helping the blind and disabled, among other priorities.

Senator Caskey was a sponsor of two landmark public schools laws, the Excellence in Education Act and Senate Bill 280, and served as a constant advocate for rural public education. He was a charter member of the Missouri Commission on Performance, which counseled the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on education reform and school finance. He also co-chaired the Joint Task Force on Education Finance, which laid groundwork for passage of the 1993 Outstanding Schools Act, Senate Bill 380. That legislation provided the largest infusion of state public school funding in generations and mandated high standards for schools.

Universally respected by law enforcement, Senator Caskey chaired the Senate Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and the Senate Ethics Committee, and he was vice chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also served on the Senate Committees on Agriculture; State Budget Control; and Ways and Means.

Senator Caskey received scores of honors for his legislative accomplishments, including tributes from the Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities; the Public Telecommunications Association of Missouri; Missouri Deputy Sheriffs Association; Judicial Conference of Missouri, Missouri Association of Counties; Missouri Association of Pharmacists; Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys; Missouri Cable Television Association; Missouri Crime Commission; Missouri Police Chiefs’ Association; the American Business Women's Association; and, the Cooperating School Districts of Suburban Kansas City. His law firm conference room in Butler is lined with plaques and remembrances.

Senator Caskey was a member of Rotary Club of Butler; the Missouri Bar Association; 27th Judicial Bar Association; Cass County Bar Association; Crescent Hill Masonic Lodge #368 A.F. & A.M.; Scotish Rite of Free Masonry in the Valley of Orient in Kansas City, Missouri; Ararat Shrine; Bates County Mizzou Alumni Club; an Honorary Fellow of the Harry S. Truman Library Institute for National and International Affairs; the Bates County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees; and he was a member of Butler First Baptist Church.

Senator Caskey was born to James Alfred Caskey, a coal mine foreman, and Edith Irene Anderson Caskey, a housewife, in Hume, Missouri on January 3, 1938. He was the fourth of five children. He married Marjorie Swaidner in June 1962 in Macon, Missouri, and due to a car accident she preceded him in death in February 1971. On October 26, 1974, Senator Caskey married Dorenda Kathryn “Kay” Head in Novelty, Knox County, Missouri. To their union was born one son, Kyle James Caskey, on March 9, 1978.

Senator Caskey is survived by his wife, Kay, of the home; son, Kyle; sister, Velma Elaine May of Lansing, Kansas; brothers Robert Caskey of Ozark, Missouri, Leon Caskey (Shirley) of Clinton, Missouri and Ray Lee Caskey (Jeri Leigh) of Alton, Missouri; brothers-in-law Glenn Head of Novelty, Missouri and Neal Head (Debbie) of Osage Beach, Missouri; and nieces, nephews and cousins.

Funeral services for Senator Caskey will be at 11 a.m. Thursday, October 8, 2015, at the Adrian Optimist Club Community Building, Old US Highway 71, Adrian, Missouri, with Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II officiating. Burial will be in Oak Hill Cemetery, Butler, Missouri.

Senator Caskey was laid in state at the Adrian Optimist Building beginning at 12 noon, Wednesday, October 7. Masonic Rites will be held at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday and will be conducted by the Butler Lodge 254 A.F. & A.M.

Harold Caskey, often described as one of the smartest members of the Missouri Senate for many years, died Thursday at 77, Gov. Jay Nixon announced. [Excerpt from obituary - Senator Caskey]

Caskey, of Butler, served 28 years in the Missouri Senate in the era before term limits put an end to such lengthy careers in Jefferson City.

Excerpt from the Kansas City Star - Regarded as a conservative Democrat, Caskey clashed with more liberal members of his party before he retired in 2004.

“Throughout his life, Harold Caskey was a true champion for the people of west-central Missouri and for working men and women all across our state,” Nixon said in a statement. “As a state senator, Harold’s leadership and depth of legislative knowledge had a real and positive impact on the lives of his constituents and helped guide many of his colleagues, including me, during my six years in the Senate.”

Nixon noted that Caskey, a lawyer, never allowed his blindness to undermine his service to the state.

“Harold’s intelligence, sense of humor and dedication to public service inspired us all,” Nixon said.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a fellow Democrat who served in the General Assembly with Caskey, described him as a special man. “Whip smart, strategic, loyal, & secretly a sweet softie,” she wrote on Twitter. “I learned so much from him.”

Roy Temple, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, who served in Gov. Mel Carnahan’s administration, ticked off a series of Caskey’s accomplishments in a Facebook post, including his work on the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993, the A+ scholarships and a retirement system for county officials.

Temple also cited Caskey’s impact on the state’s criminal justice system “in ways large and small.”

“Harold never let his blindness prevent him from tackling any challenge presented to him,” Temple wrote. “He possessed a keen legal mind and a formidable wit.”

Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, a fellow Democrat, called Caskey a “giant of the Missouri Senate.” [Kansas City Star]