Bill Comer, a longtime lobbyist for education causes in Colorado and elsewhere, died of cancer on Feb. 19 at his Denver home.
He was 72.
A service is planned for the spring.
Comer became a lobbyist and political organizer after teaching social studies for almost 20 years at North Junior High School in Colorado Springs.
“He was a terrific teacher,” said Eric Sondermann, a political analyst in Denver.
“He was head and shoulders above other teachers because he sparked interest in students,” said Sondermann, who had Comer as a teacher in ninth grade.
Their paths later crossed when Comer was a lobbyist and Sondermann worked for then-Gov. Dick Lamm. “We weren’t always on the same side of issues,” said Sondermann.
Comer taught his children that they should always know both sides of an issue “and to listen unbiasedly” to the other side before arguing yours, said his daughter Danielle Williams, of Bastrop, Texas. When his kids disappointed him, he never yelled.
“He just gave us the look,” said Williams.
But it “took him awhile to get over” the time his then- teenage son, Sean Casey Comer, now of Mendon, Mass., registered as a Republican, said Williams.
Comer “was a dyed-in-the-wood Democrat,” said his partner, Deborah Fallin.
William Joseph Comer was born May 20, 1935, in Cumberland, Md., and earned a bachelor’s in education from LaSalle College in Philadelphia and a master’s in education from the University of Northern Colorado.
Comer moved to Denver after being stationed there while in the Army.
He married Daphne Deming, and they had five children. Daphne Comer died in 1992.
He became president of the Colorado Education Association in 1972, served two years in the Colorado Senate and then became a CEA lobbyist, a job he held for 10 years.
He managed the organization’s battle against the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which was passed in 1992, and fought another campaign against school vouchers. The Colorado General Assembly approved school vouchers in 2003, but the law was struck down by the state Supreme Court.
In the mid-1990s, Comer became a political organizer and ballot-issue specialist for the National Education Association, often traveling to other states to organize ballot-issue campaigns, said Fallin.
In addition to Fallin, his daughter and son, Comer is survived by three other daughters, Cheri-Babette Corso of Bangkok, Thailand, Theresa Comer of Hermosa, Calif., and Shannon Hemming of Colorado Springs; and 11 grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
