Tony Coehlo oral history - July 12, 2022

I am Michael Engh from Loyola Marymount University. I'm interviewing uh, Tony Coelho here at Loyola Law School on uh, the morning of July 15th, 2022. We're in Merrifield Hall. So welcome, Mr. Coelho,

we're very happy to have you here. Thank you, Father. Give me your—your full name and how you were known when you were at LMU.

Tony Coelho and um, I was from central California. And how did you first get attracted to come to Loyola at that time? Well, I

was from a very small public school in—in Dos Palos, California, and I wanted to have a small university if I could. And I was attracted to a Catholic school and attracted

to the Jesuits, who I didn't know well, but the reputation. And so I came here to visit, and I loved it.

I fell in love with the campus and decided to come, and got accepted, which was even more exciting. And what was the high school that you came from? Dos Palos High School, it was about one-third um, uh, Mexican

American, one-third white, one-third Black. It was a joint union school from different counties and so forth, um, and a great school. I learned a lot there and was very active in

student government there as well. Could you tell us what your current and former occupations were? I was in the US House of Representatives.

I was Democratic Majority Whip and served in the Congress for seven years, and I was a staffer for a congressman prior to that for 13 years. And before that, uh, I was living with Bob Hope and

his family, and before that, I was at Loyola. Okay. Okay. And then currently, your occupation? Currently, I'm semi-retired um, and I'm on several corporate boards, and

my passion and my ministry is disability. And so I'm very involved with several disability operations, and um, I'm devoted to making a difference on disability issues. And we'll talk some more about that in just a

moment. That's a really important piece. Um, so your years at Loyola were 19— —1960-1964.

I'm 80 years old. [Cross talk.]So you were here for four years. I'm 80 years old. So that's [laughs].

Thank you. And what was your major? What was your minor? What did you study when you were here?

Political science and philosophy. And do you recall any of the professors that you had in political science? Yeah, in political science,uh uh

Dr. Fitzgerald, who became a close friend, and—and Dr. Chang was first and then Dr. Fitzgerald came in after that, and he and I became good friends uh, all the way through my career.

And—and—and then uh, in philosophy, the one that had a huge impact on me was Father, um—oh jeez— anyhow, the head of the philosophy—the Ethics Jesuit, was a huge impact on me.

And if there's any class that helped me and I still relate to it, was the Ethics course. And how did you choose that major or that minor? Well, we all

had to be a philosophy minor. [off camera] had to be a philosophy minor. We had to be a philosophy minor. It had to be a philosophy minor. So that wasn't a choice—

but it was great. Um, and we also had to take religion, so, um—but political science was—you know—I wanted to end up going to law school and it seemed to

be the right um, course to take. And I loved politics, so um, that's what I chose. And did you say—you mentioned Dr. Chang a moment ago?

Did you have a class with him? Yes. Um, the introductory political science class was from him.

And then, as I remember, uh, in the second year, uh, Dr. Fitzgerald was here. And then I finished with him all the way through. Okay.

Thank you. So tell us something about what Loyola University was like in those days, in terms of the academic life, the social life, dorm life?

Well, it was a small school, um, which I loved, um, and I was—I had to learn a lot because most of the guys going here had come from Catholic schools and knew a lot more when

a professor would say such book or whatever. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I had to use the library a lot to catch up.

But it was an all-male school. We had five women's colleges around us, and so we had social life by going to uh, events there, or those girls would come to us for our social events.

And so that was the social life um, was a lot of fun um, with all these guys that were—were at school, became close friends with a lot of people in the dorms, um, and it was a great place to be.

Uh, I didn't know the Jesuits well, as I said, but I fell in love with the Jesuits. I fell in love with their intellectual uh— critique in what they question you and so forth.

Um, and they didn't let you get away with any— I was going to say BS, but I shouldn't say that. [Laughs.] They wouldn't let you get away with any um, off the

cuff thoughts and so forth. They challenge you. I loved it, I thrived on it, and I was— I had a lot of Jesuits at that time, and uh,

I became more and more impressed with them the whole time I was here. We'll come back to that in just a moment, too. In terms that you just mentioned, the social life and the women's—

the five women's colleges—how did the—how was the social life organized and how did it take place? We had uh, TGIFs— Thank God it's Friday—um, and that was uh, one of the

big draws here. I was very active uh, sophomore class president, and I organized a lot of those. And then I was social chairman in my junior year, um,

and I was very active in in um, having social events here. One quick story, which is great. Father uh, Kilp was my confidant and I was very close to him.

He was Dean of Men, and so I had a TGIF event and and at the time um, the dancing was just uh, not very, not very— But you moved your hips and back and forth, and

Father Kilp came to the event and he said to me afterwards, he said, "There'll be no more of that." And I said, "Father, come on." I was close to him.

So I said, "Come on—you you know—this is nothing compared to what's going on in the rest of the world. And we can't be that strict.

We'll lose our support from the students at the women's colleges in here." And and I said, "You know, there's nothing sexual about it."

And so he said—we talked a little bit more about it. Then he got up and he started to do The Twist, which is what it was where you just [moves arms across his body] started.

He said, "You mean like this?" I said, "It's not sexual at all for me." [Laughs.] I said, so. So he said, "Okay, as long as you control it,

it's fine." And one of my experiences was at one of these— I was being very careful— I'd walk around and make sure people weren't doing anything.

And there was this uh, young man. Tommy was his name— I won't say his last name—but Tommy had a a uh, severe disability and uh, had trouble walking and so forth.

But I didn't know him. And at this dance he was out there dancing, had been drinking beers and was out there dancing. I thought he was drunk.

And uh, I went up to him and told him he had to get off the floor. One of my colleagues, who knew him well, came up to me and said, do you realize X?

And I was mortified. Um, and I went up to him and apologized and so forth. But it's a good example of the stigma that exists

in our community, is that when you see somebody with a disability, you immediately assume something as opposed to what they really have. And that was a great lesson for me.

Made a strong impression. Strong impression. I was embarrassed um, because of my own situation and um, it— but I've never forgotten it.

And so it was a good lesson. And how did—you mention your own situation— how did you discover your own situation? Well, I had an accident uh, on the dairy farm um, when

I was 16. Hit my head. Um, nothing except a headache. About a year later, I was in the barn milking,

and all of a sudden I wake up in my bed and my brother had picked me up from the barn, carried me across uh, the yard to the house, and I had just had a grand mal seizure.

I didn't know what it was, of course. And uh, the doctor was there with my parents and they were talking. Um— My parents—the doctor didn't talk to me—

my parents said to me, "Well, they think it's lack of calcium," or something like that. And so I went to two other doctors. The doctors um, all said to them um, that "We think he

has epilepsy," but my parents, being Portuguese Americans and being Catholics—devout Catholics—they felt if you had epilepsy, you were possessed by the devil. And so they were protecting me from that—protecting themselves—

because culturally,uh, among a lot of uh, different ethnic groups uh, if you had a seizure, it was God punishing the family for some major sin that somebody in the family had committed.

And so I was the vehicle to let people know this family had trouble. I didn't know any of that, but my parents felt that.

And so they were protecting themselves, protecting me and so forth. So um, I kept on having these passing out spells, as I called them.

And then I went away to school in Los Angeles—to Loyola— and I kept having these spells, but—I would pass out, it was generally later in the afternoon, um, but I would

have them and, you know, I would just say, it's a passing out spell. I didn't know was anything else. Um, and so when I had this, um, incident with Tom, I

didn't know I had epilepsy. I just knew I had a problem. And—and it did impact me. And—and um, all that developed later when I decided I

want to become a Jesuit. Okay, so what's the next—we saw that develop later— what was the next step? Well, I graduated, I was student body president and I

graduated outstanding senior. And I announced, uh, that I was entering the Jesuit seminary. And that was a big thing for the Jesuits and big thing for me. [off camera] That you were student body president?

Yeah. And so I went to my doctor— I went to a doctor—Dr. John Doyle Sr., here in Los Angeles, and he did all kinds of tests.

And he said, "Have you ever heard the word epilepsy?" And I said no. And he says, "Well, that's what you have." And he explained to me what it was, and he

said, "I can give you a medication that will help you. It won't cure it, but it will help you on the severity of the seizures and—and the—the uh, numerous

amount of them," and so forth. And so I was thrilled, I was excited, I knew what my problem was, it wasn't this mystery. And, um, so I couldn't be a priest.

That was I was at a negative for me because I really wanted—I felt—I felt the ministry. Um, uh, and he said, "The bad news is that the Catholic Church in 400 AD said, if you have epilepsy or

possessed by the devil, you can't be a priest." So I was denied entry. Now, I got—because I was student body president and all this stuff—

I had a lot of job offers. And um, after that, uh, I called my parents and said, "Look, I have good news. I know what my passing out spells are.

And the doctor says I have epilepsy." And they immediately said, "No son of ours has epilepsy." And so the stigma in regards to a disability was really developing.

And I realized that because of my epilepsy, there was restrictions. I felt that, uh, because of rejection—seminary, my parents and so forth—I felt that God had turned against me.

I felt the Church had turned against me, and I felt my family had turned against me. I started drinking um, and went to Griffith Park [Rehabilitation Center]. Um, and when you drink, you have an exaggeration of things.

Uh, I thought it was a mountain. There's no mountains in Griffith Park, but there's hills. And at the bottom of the hill where I was drinking was a merry-go-round.

But I would drink and get drunk by two or three o'clock in the afternoon. And one day that I was going to commit suicide, um, I heard a voice, and the voice said, "You're going

to be just like those little kids getting in, on and off the merry-go-round. You're never going to let anybody or anything stop you from doing what you want to do."

I got my mojo back. I've never been depressed since. I've never been drunk— I drink—and I felt confident.

And then father Ed Markey, who— Ed Markey? Yeah, who was in the philosophy department—and—and a good friend—came to me one day and he says,

"Tony, I have an opportunity for you to live with Bob Hope and his family" and I—you know—I knew who Bob Hope was. And—and so he explained why.

And I don't talk about it publicly, but I agreed went—went and visited them, they agreed that I should live with him. So I lived with him, and um, I became part of

the family and, uh, ate meals with him, lived in the house with him, traveled and so forth. And one day I was driving with Mr. Hope to— he was doing the Bob Hope Comedy Hour or whatever

it was called— And he said to me, he says, "Look it, you think you have a ministry and you think it only can be practiced in a church.

You're wrong. A true ministry is practiced in sports, entertainment, business, government. But you belong in politics." Now, I—I'd never thought of that.

I was very active in high school and college politics, but I never thought of federal politics. Um, I thought about that and thought about it. And so I wrote a letter to my congressman who

I didn't know, and he uh—I got a call back from his chief of staff and said the congressman was going to be in Los Angeles uh, for a Valentine's gala and uh—and would see me for 15 minutes.

And so I went there—the Mayflower Hotel—went there, and we ended up talking for 45 minutes, and he said, "I'll be back in touch." And I got a letter asking me if I would

join them. I immediately said, "Yes, of course." And one of the great stories is that Bob Hope was at a Bing Crosby golf tournament uh, staying with Mr. Crosby.

And so I called and say “You know, I have this offer,” and so forth. And he said, "Well, don't do anything until I get back and let's get together in Palm Springs."

So, I did, I went down to Palm Springs and he agreed with my decision to go to work for this congressman.

He said that, "If you told me, I would have got you with somebody famous, this guy, nobody knows." I said, "Well, he's my congressman, so."

So anyway, uh, he asked me never to write or talk about my time with him, which I've honored. Um, and um, he—a funny story. He said, "How are you going to get there?"

I said, "I'm going to drive." He said, "Do you have any money?" And I said, "Well, not much." He said, "Well, why don't I give you some money?"

I said, "No, no, I don't want it." I said, "You've been so great to me, I don't want anything." So he was pushing me and I said, no.

He says, "Well, why don't you go to a bank and get a loan?" And so I said, "Well, yeah, that's fine. If I can get it." He said, "I'll make sure that you

get a loan." So I went to the Bank of America in North Hollywood, which was his bank, and I walk in and so the secretary there says, "Oh, he's waiting for you."

And so I go in and see the manager. And he said, "Mr. Hope wants to make sure that you're taken care of." And I said, "Thank you."

And he said, "How much do you want?" And so I'm thinking, now, I'm from a very poor family and uh, I've had a great experience at Loyola. And I'm thinking, "How much do I ask for?"

I hadn't thought about that before I went in, so I said, sheepishly I said, "$1,000." He said "$1,000?" And I'm thinking, "Oh my God, I made a mistake.

It's too much." He said, "You can ask anything you want. You sure?" That's fine. A thousand is fine.

Um, and so I got it. And little did I know that Mr. Hope cosigned it. And not until I paid off the loan did I get the sheet of paper with his signature on it.

And so I could have asked as much as I wanted, but I didn't— I knew nothing about that. And, but it was—and my relationship with the Hopes

continued. Um, and one day when I'm in Congress, he's in Modesto, California, and he was speaking there. I heard that he was, I I then was with the

Greek community. I was very close to the Greek community, and they told me that he was speaking there. So I went and sat in the back of the

room. Um- I didn't want to—I never I promised him I would never take advantage of our relationship. So I never communicated.

I just—you know—I was extremely appreciative of him. So I sat in the back of the room just to see him and watch him, and all of a sudden I got a tap on my shoulder and this

guy says, "Mr. Hope knows you're here and he wants to see you." So I go to the back in the back over there and he says, "How come you've never been in

touch?" I said, "Look, I made a promise to you that I would never say—" "I think you've carried it too far."

He said we should stay in touch. So we took a picture there and so forth and so on, which he signed. It was great, um, and I stayed in touch all the

way through. His wife and I were—Dolores—were good friends as well. Um, and I was with—with him at a dinner where

he had um, lost his eyesight and his hearing, and um—and Mrs. Hope saw me, and she called out to me. I came over to their table, and she says very loud, "Bob! Tony's here."

And so he turns and so forth, and we hugged. And that was the last time I saw him. But a great part of my life. I owe him, um, so much.

And I let the family know how much I appreciate what he did for me. And that began with your connection through Father Markie. Yeah.

Who knew the Hopes. And that's why the Coehlo Disability Center is here at Loyola Marymount, it's because Loyola played the huge role in my life, and I felt I was going to put a

center someplace. I interviewed five different universities, and I decided that I owed Loyola for my success. And so I decided to do it here.

And—and having um, Dean Waterstone as the head of the {Loyola]Law School, as someone who's renowned internationally on disability issues, made it big it was a big factor in my decision, as well.

And I met with the, uh president of the university at that time, and my commitment was that I would, uh, give and raise $5 million, and that one thing I wanted was that it be university wide.

I didn't want it to be put in student government or something, but that it was a center for the whole university. And I got that commitment.

And the current president and the provost have been fabulous in that regard. And Dean Waterstone is a tremendous person, a close friend now, and um, I love what the center does.

So. So, so that brings us up to the present. If I could step back in time. You said you lived on campus.

Where did you live? Which dorms or dormitories were you in? Well, there were two old dorms. Uh, Sullivan and Huesman. [off camera] Huesman.

That's right. And so uh, I lived in Sullivan for two years and then moved to Desmond for my last two years. And in the summer between my junior and senior year,

Um, I had just been elected student body president. And what the university wanted in the summer was for you to take—go to summer school so that you had less pressure in your senior year because you were in

student government. And so I did. And uh—and one of the things that, you know, I still never forget about Loyola was that my family, as I said,

was poor, went bankrupt in the dairy business. And, uh, I didn't have a source of funds. And Loyola stepped in and made sure that I graduated and so forth.

Um, and so—you know—there are so many connections as to how Loyola helped me during my life. I see. And then when we talk about campus life.

You mentioned you were chair of the [air quotes] social committee. Where did students basically hang out? Where do they go for meals?

The—the I guess the dining room. I forget what was called—Lion— Lion's Den, I think. [off camera]Lair. And that was a social place.

We we all had lunch there. We—you know—you could go and get a snack and so forth and so on. Now, um, more than half of the school, as I recall,

—or at least half—were people from Los Angeles. So they came and went. And then the others were those of us living in the dorms and student workers and so forth.

Um, and those are the folks that I really got close to. And uh, it was a wonderful experience. All guys, of course.

But it was—I've never been exposed to that. Such we didn't have many people of color at the time and there were no women, um, but I was just immersed in this um, opportunity to make friends because they were—

we were all here together, and I was the only one from central California. I knew nobody when I came here, and I loved every moment of it.