Jack Geraghty truly enjoys being a Husky in Cougar Country. He came west from Spokane to the UW in 1952 as a student in what was then the School of Journalism. After graduation, Geraghty edited the “Service Stripe” newspaper at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and then came home as a reporter for the Spokane Daily Chronicle. In 1964, he was elected as a Democratic Spokane County Commissioner, beating a Republican incumbent, unheard of in Spokane at the time. He was 29 years old, the youngest commissioner ever elected then or since. As commissioner, he spearheaded the consolidation of Sheriff and Spokane police and corrections functions into a single public safety facility that remains today. He left the county in 1971 to become vice president of Exhibitor and Guest Relations for EXPO ’74, the Spokane World’s Fair. The permanent legacy of that Fair is Spokane’s beautiful Riverfront Park in the heart of the city. After the Fair he founded and published “The Falls” weekly newspaper for two years. He then went into the public affairs consulting business. Under the aegis of two firms — Jack Geraghty and Associates and Alliance Pacific, Inc. (now headed by his wife, Kerry Lynch) — Geraghty helped coordinate a number of successful bond issue campaigns that changed the face of Spokane. They included a new central library and three branch public libraries; an expanded Spokane Convention Center; reconstruction and modernization of four of the city’s five senior high schools; construction of a new high school in the suburban Mead district; and several park and street improvement projects. In 1993, Geraghty was elected as the 39th mayor of Spokane. His legacy was a public-private partnership that ultimately led to the development of the Riverpark Square mall, the restoration of the historic Davenport Hotel and a general renaissance of arts, restaurants and entertainment facilities.