By Joe Baker/Daily News staff

NEWPORT - The state was falling to pieces, but not many people knew it. In the days before Bruce Sundlun took office as governor in 1991, he learned that the state's privately insured credit unions were going to fold. This was going to have a disastrous impact on an already-weakened state economy.

One of those who realized the extent of the problem was Rep. Paul W. Crowley, D-Newport. As a member of Sundlun's budget transition team, the Newport lawmaker knew what was coming, but couldn't speak out. But during a pre-inauguration interview with a local reporter, Crowley dropped a hint of what was ahead.

"You're going to see some profiles in courage and you'll see some people running for cover," Crowley said when asked about the economic outlook for 1991.

That sentence sums up Crowley's 27-year legislative career. Crowley, who died Monday at the age of 57 after a 21-month battle with cancer, was not afraid to speak his mind, even if it went against public opinion.

A man who relished history and the legislature's historical importance in government, Crowley showed his true colors again during the separation-of-powers debate. Both before and after voters approved the constitutional amendment, Crowley fought to ensure that proponents would not emasculate the General Assembly, an institution that he served with pride.

After voters approved a non-binding separation-of-powers resolution in 2002, Crowley used his constitutional bully pulpit - the senior Newport lawmaker presides over the House on the first day of a new session until a speaker of the House is elected - to remind lawmakers to stand up and defend their institution.

"This is a good institution, a strong institution," Crowley said. "We've made mistakes and we can correct that. But we shouldn't go into this year weakened in our resolve to have a balance. We represent the part of this triumvirate of state government that is directly closest to the people."

"He believed strongly in this institution," said Senate Majority Leader Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport. "He loved history and he loved Newport. Much of what he (accomplished) intertwined those two things."

While Crowley was not a one-trick pony, he long will be remembered as the dean of education in the legislature. He fought to secure additional education funding for Newport, yet he was not shy about demanding accountability from school administrators, teachers and students.

In the mid-1980s, he first proposed the idea of regionalizing Aquidneck Island schools, despite the predictable outcry from cities and towns. In 1987, he suggested adding 20 days to the school year. Five years later, he floated a bill to establish a 20-day summer school session for students from kindergarten through third grade. That would help them retain what they learned the previous year over their summer vacation, he said.

"If you get to kids in the first four grades, you have a much better chance to advance their education," he said.

In 1995, Crowley pushed through legislation establishing charter schools and, in 1998, his bill to require criminal background checks for educators with supervisory powers over children was enacted.

But the proposal that probably will be most closely associated with Crowley is the Student Investment Initiative, more commonly referred to as Article 31. While Crowley favored more state aid for education, he did not like issuing a blank check. He was a strong believer in accountability - that local educators had to put that money to good use or be held accountable, that students needed to be tested to determine if they were actually learning and that teachers should be accountable for their students' performances.

While education may be his hallmark, Crowley also made significant contributions to the region's tourism economy. During his freshman year in the House, he was named president of the fledgling Newport Tourism and Convention Authority, later renamed the Newport County Convention & Visitors Bureau. And despite the fact he was only a month into his first term, Crowley showed his resolve at the authority's first meeting.

The five public officials appointed to the board were supposed to name four more members from a list proposed by the Newport County Chamber of Commerce. But Crowley rejected the list because more than half did not live in Newport.

Crowley had another rare achievement in his freshman year, when his bill to establish a local hotel tax was passed.

"As a freshman, it was almost unheard of in those days to get such legislation passed, but he did it," said close friend and former legislative colleague Chris Boyle.

Crowley also was the lead man on the successful push to allow Newport to collect a tax on cruise-ship passengers in 1998 and the 2003 initiative that established a 1 percent local tax on meals and beverages.

Proud of his Irish ancestry, Crowley also was instrumental in establishing the "sister city" relationship between Newport and the Irish city of Kinsale.

After the 2004 death of a college student on a local pub crawl, Crowley ushered through legislation banning the practice. He stayed involved in shaping the local ordinance banning pub crawls passed by the City Council.

Crowley was a political survivor because he understood how the legislative game of chess was played. His continued influence in the Statehouse came despite political defeats. In 1992, he was on the losing team of the battle to succeed retiring Speaker of the House Joseph DeAngelis. Despite opposing ultimate winner John Harwood, Crowley emerged from legislative Siberia to become vice chairman of the powerful House Finance Committee under Harwood's leadership.

He was a key supporter of Rep. William H. Murphy when he mounted a successful effort to unseat Harwood from the speaker's post in 2003.

In 2006, Murphy survived a challenge from a group of dissident Democrats who threatened to disrupt legislative business. Crowley, a member of Murphy's leadership team, shrugged it off.

"For me, it's just so much about egos," Crowley said. "I think it'll be irritating and will involve some nose counting, but that's just the way it's going to be."

For someone whose full-time job was running LaForge Casino Restaurant with his brother, and who was so legislatively involved, Crowley knew how to enjoy himself. He was an avid rugby fan. In the months before his death, he completed a historical novel about the 1924 American Olympic rugby team that won the gold medal.

Crowley loved to sing, frequently crooning from the House podium during legislative St. Patrick Day celebrations. He recorded a CD of children's songs for his grandchildren, entitled, appropriately enough, "Seven Songs for My Grandchildren."

Rep. Charles J. Levesque, D-Portsmouth, often had his philosophical differences with Crowley, but knew the disagreements were anything but personal. Remembering Crowley on Monday, Levesque recalled his fondness for singing and thought of an old Irish tale in which English soldiers had three Irish rebels trapped in a building. Knowing their fate, the three, who thought of themselves as poets, lamented to themselves that "Ireland would soon be short three more minor poets."

"Well, now I think the world is short one more Irish tenor," Levesque said.