K. Leroy Irvis
1919 - 2006
BiographyK. Leroy Irvis, born in Saugerties N.Y., graduated from the University of Pittsburgh Law School and went on to become a noted civil rights activist and was elected in May 1977 as the first black speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. A man of many talents, he was a poet, artist, sculptor, civil rights leader and legislator. Before gaining his position as a speaker, Irvis was a teacher and prosecutor and held the position of a trustee emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh Law School and graduated in 1951. He retired in 1988 and died from cancer in 2006. His wife Katharyne Jones passed away in 1958. In 2004, a television documentary about Irvis titled “K. Leroy Irvis: The Lion of Pennsylvania” was produced by Robert Hill. Irvis has been honored in the form of an office building in the Pennsylvania Capitol complex that bears his name as well as a library reading room in the University of Pittsburgh.
