Andrew J. Shea was a sailor and a grillmaster, a lively character who worked his way up from a rocky childhood to become the consummate political insider.
But he may be best remembered as the brilliant attorney who came up with the winning legal strategy that kept Major League Baseball from killing off the Twins.
Shea, 79, died July 8 in Edina after several years of failing health.
A lifelong Democrat, Shea was a strong believer in using government to help citizens and fought for the right of workers to be represented by unions, said his son, Andrew T. Shea of Minneapolis.
"In law school, he was a legislative analyst at the Library of Congress," his son said. "Going through his papers, we found these analyses he had written back in 1963, 1964. He wrote about the need to invest in immigrants when they came to this country.
"He wrote about the need to provide vocational-style schools so we can always have a strong working population."
Shea made his mark in politics at a young age — not as an elected official, but as a behind-the-scenes mover and shaker. Still in his 30s, he was selected to manage the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York City. He spent an entire year planning and preparing for the convention, where Jimmy Carter was nominated on his way to winning the presidency.
His children remember spending a month in New York, where they rode a blimp, visited the circus and saw the original Broadway production of "The Wiz." They had many other adventures with their father, who loved to travel and, especially, to sail.
