Robert C. Odle, Jr., 75, who retired as a partner in the Washington law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in 2015 after 30 years, died early last month at his home in Alexandria, Va. The cause of death was brain cancer.
I knew Rob Odel in the1980s, when he was the Reagan Administration’s Department of Energy congressional lobbyist and I was a reporter for Energy Daily, covering Congress. We had a cordial, on-the-record relationship as he tried to steer the Reagan administration’s ill-fated 1982 plan to abolish DOE and transfer most of its functions to the Department of Commerce. He was a decent and forthright man.
The personable Odel, then 38 (also my age at the time), had an uphill task facing a skeptical Congress. But he was always optimistic and often unrealistic about the chances of getting approval of the reorganization plan.
A key figure was Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas), dean of the Texas delegation and long-time chairman of the House Committee on Government Operations. His committee had jurisdiction over the Reagan DOE plan. Brooks had been silent on his views of the move to abolish DOE. Several key Republican senators had already expressed doubts about the administration plan, including Pete Domenici of New Mexico and James McClure of Idaho.
Suspecting that Brooks would oppose the plan, I scheduled an on-the-record interview with him in his office. I told Odel about the interview, and he predicted that Brooks would support the administration. He said he had signals from the Brooks staff that the Texan was in line with the White House and DOE.
As I suspected, Brooks trashed the Reagan plan in colorful language, some of it unprintable. He said it was stupid, based on misunderstanding of what the agency did, and would not save taxpayer dollars. It said it was simply a payback to some key Reagan backers in the 1980 election.
When the interview hit print the next day, Odel called me and was gobsmacked. He thanked me for the interview and the intelligence about Brooks. The reorganization plan died a swift death.
Odel’s background included his service on President Richard Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign. At 29, he was director of administration for Nixon’s Committee to Reelect the President, essentially the office manager. When the congressional Watergate hearings under Sen. Sam Ervin (D-N.C.) that ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation started in May of 1973, Odel was the first witness.
Jules Witcover of the Washington Post reported, “Odle, baby-faced, with an accountant’s manner and a dull gray-striped suit he will still look right in when he’s 60, came more in sorrow than in anger or repentence.” Witcover commented, “The re-election committee, he made clear, was a place where they watched the small print with a magnifying glass but sometimes didn’t know when a truck was running over them.”
After leaving DOE, Odel joined the D.C. law firm in 1985, where he had a long practice representing clients before government agencies and Congress. After retiring, he served several charitable organizations, including the Richard Nixon foundation.
Odel, a Michigan native, graduated from Wayne State University in 1966 and the Detroit College of Law in 1969. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Lydia, and a son, John Paul Odel.
— Kennedy Maize