Researching Hugh Casey

As an engineer, Casey prepared a voluminous report on flood control for the Pittsburgh District. He was involved with the design and construction of the Deadman Island Lock and Dam on the Ohio River, and was chief of the Engineering Division at the Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project, a New Deal public works project. He went to the Philippines in 1937 to advise the government there on hydropower and flood control. In the early part of World War II, he became involved with the enormous wartime construction program. Perhaps his most notable and lasting achievement was his involvement with the design of The Pentagon, the largest office building in the world.

Casey served as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur's chief engineer during the Battle of Bataan, in the jungles and mountains of New Guinea and the Philippines, and during the occupation of Japan. In the Battle of Leyte, he commanded the Army Support Command (ASCOM), which was responsible for all construction and logistics activities in the forward area. He hoped to become Chief of Engineers, but President Harry S. Truman passed him over. Later, Casey worked for Schenley Industries from 1951 until his retirement in 1965, and was chairman of the New York City Transit Authority from 1953 to 1955.

Casey worked as a community project manager in Lurgan before being elected to Craigavon Borough Council as a Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor in 1989. In 1994, he left the SDLP, after accepting an MBE, claiming that some in the party had ostracised him for accepting a British honour. He stood in Upper Bann as a Labour coalition candidate for the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996, heading a list which took only 512 votes.

Although no Labour coalition members were directly elected, as the tenth most successful party in the election, they were entitled to two seats in the Forum. These were allocated to Casey and Malachi Curran. In the same year, he became the first Catholic Mayor of Craigavon.

The Coalition soon disintegrated. Casey stood as an independent Labour candidate in the 1997 local elections, but lost his seat in Craigavon. He did not stand for the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, but did canvass for the Labour Party of Northern Ireland.

When the composition of the Northern Ireland Policing Board was first revealed in 1998, Casey was named as a member. From 2003, he sat on the County Armagh District Policing Partnership, and received death threats believed to be from dissident republicans. He later served as a member of Craigavon District Policing Partnership.