James F. Rooney

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James Francis Rooney (September 29, 1935 – May 3, 2025) was a Democratic public official from Racine, Wisconsin. He served Racine in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1973 to 1985, where he worked on the Highways Committee and, for a time, chaired the Democratic caucus.

Rooney helped create the Wisconsin Waterways Commission and was its chair from 1985 until 2019. The commission, created in 1977, allocated state gas tax funds to harbor and lakefront projects, and Rooney championed Racine’s lakefront improvements for decades.

He spent nearly 30 years in Racine County government. He was a member of the Racine County Board of Supervisors from 1966 to 1984 and served as its chairman from 1982 to 1984. He also chaired the Racine Harbor Commission from 1970 to 2013 and remained on the commission until retiring in 2019. In 1984 he left the County Board to become the county highway commissioner, a role he held until 1988, after which he served as county public works commissioner until 1994. He returned to the County Board in 1998 for another term, serving with his son, but was defeated in 2000.

Rooney was born in Racine and graduated from St. Catherine’s High School in 1953. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1954 and served two years at Fort Eustis, Virginia. He worked as a surveyor and later as a business manager for Nielsen & Madsen, an engineering firm in Racine.

In his personal life, Rooney and his wife, Nancy, had four children. He was an avid sailor, owned two boats, and was a longtime member of the Racine Yacht Club and the Kiwanis Club of Greater Racine. He died in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, at the age of 89.