Robert Patrick Casey (1932-2000)
Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Pennsylvania public official and lifelong Scranton resident, Casey served as State Senator, 1962-66; First Vice President of Pa. Constitutional Convention, 1967-68; Auditor General, 1969-77; and Governor, 1987-95. As governor he pioneered the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a national model, and landmark environmental reforms such as the PENNVEST clean water program. He achieved national stature for his ardent pro-life stance.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
A lifelong son of Scranton, Robert P. Casey climbed through a long public career — state senator, auditor general, and finally two terms as governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995. His administration pioneered the Children's Health Insurance Program, a state experiment in covering the working poor's kids that became a national model, alongside landmark clean-water reforms like PENNVEST. A devout Catholic, he also drew national attention for an outspoken pro-life stance that cut against his party's grain.
Why it matters
Casey's CHIP became the template for a federal program insuring millions of American children, a rare case of a state policy reshaping the national safety net.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert Patrick Casey
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Electric Cars
Scranton, PA · est. 1948
On November 30, 1886, Scranton launched what is celebrated as the first street railway system in the United States built entirely for electric operation, running between the city center and the Green Ridge section. In an age when most urban transit still relied on horses, this was a bold leap into a new technology. The achievement earned Scranton its enduring nickname, the Electric City.
The "Pioneer" marker
Scranton, PA
In the mid-19th century, northeastern Pennsylvania's anthracite fields ran on ingenious gravity railroads — lines that let loaded coal cars coast downhill by their own weight, with stationary steam engines hauling the empties back up a chain of inclined planes. The Pennsylvania Coal Company's route carried anthracite between the mines around Pittston and the canal at Hawley for more than three decades. This surviving 'Pioneer' car, retired when the gravity line gave way to conventional steam locomotives, was handed over to the City of Scranton in 1909 as a relic of that vanished technology.
Birthplace of First Aid
Jermyn, PA
In the hard and dangerous world of anthracite coal mining, an injured miner far from any doctor often had little chance. On October 25, 1899, at the Jermyn Colliery, physician Matthew J. Shields and the Hudson Coal Company are credited with founding organized first-aid training in America — teaching miners to treat wounds and steady the injured before help could arrive. The idea spread from these coal patches to mines, factories, and eventually households across the country.
First Aid Pioneer
Mayfield, PA · est. 1947
In the anthracite coalfields of northeastern Pennsylvania, where cave-ins, explosions, and machinery routinely maimed miners far from any hospital, Dr. Matthew J. Shields began teaching mine workers to treat their own wounded in 1899. His system of training laborers in emergency care took root in one of America's most dangerous industries and grew into the Red Cross program of industrial first aid, spreading the idea that workers themselves could be a workplace's first line of medical defense.