Albert ‘Al’ W. Laisy, CSX lawyer who represented the company before federal regulators, dies

Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun
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Albert “Al” W. Laisy, a retired CSX Corp. lawyer who was the lead counsel on many cases before the federal agency charged with regulating the railroad industry, died of congestive heart failure March 23 at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville. The former Bel Air resident was 92.

“Albert was very smart, well-educated, hardworking and knowledgeable,” said E. Ray Lichty, a retired CSX executive. “He was a mentor to many of the new lawyers not familiar with the idiosyncrasies of railroad law. He had a very good sense of humor, preferring one-liners to long, drawn-out stories.”

Peter J. Shudtz was vice president and general counsel when he retired in 2018 from CSX after 42 years in its legal department. “When I showed up, Al was a kind and wonderful mentor, especially when I was struggling to fit in,” Mr. Shudtz said. “He was a great intellect who had a probing mind. He was a wonderful team player who had a good sense of balance along with an infectious laugh.”

Albert Wade Laisy, son of Fred Laisy, whose Laisy Greenhouses was the largest provider of carnations in the Midwest, and his wife, Christine Laisy, a homemaker, was born and raised in North Olmsted, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.

After graduating from North Olmsted High School, where he was captain of the football team, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1954 in history from Yale University.

While at Yale he was a member of ROTC before joining the Army and serving two years at Fort Sill in Oklahoma as a member of an observation battalion.

Honorably discharged, he enrolled in law school at the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his degree in 1959.

He began his career in 1960 in the legal department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, whose headquarters were in Baltimore.

After the B&O was merged into the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, forming C&O/B&O in 1963, Mr. Laisy moved to the company’s headquarters in Cleveland.

He returned to Baltimore with the creation of the Chessie System, and later in 1980 when CSX was established.

During his career, Mr. Laisy — whose specialty was finance regulation cases — presided over numerous major cases for the B&O, Chessie System and CSX, Mr. Lichty said.

“Al played a major role in the creation of CSX,” he said. “His specialty was the operations of the Chessie System and the way the new CSX would work.”

“One case was the Chessie-Seaboard Coast Line merger application before the ICC [Interstate Commerce Commission, now the Surface Transportation Board]. Others included the abandonment of the Lake Michigan car ferries and the B&O’s car float operations on Staten Island in New York Harbor,” Mr. Shudtz said.

In the 1970s the railroad began abandonment proceedings to eliminate operation of the SS Badger and SS Spartan, which constituted its Lake Michigan car ferry fleet, due to increasing costs of maintenance, labor and fuel. In 1983, after the ICC denied its request, the railroad sold the service to a private operator.

“He holds the informal record for the longest abandonment case before the ICC which was denied, and included multiple hearings in Michigan, Wisconsin cities and Washington,” Mr. Lichty wrote in a biographical profile of Mr. Laisy.

Mr. Laisy also laid the legal groundwork for the car ferry system to be sold to a private individual, with the Badger still sailing as a car-truck ferry.

“Anyone who knew Al really liked him and you always really wanted him on your team,” Mr. Shudtz said.

One of Mr. Laisy’s last assignments before retiring in 1994, was handling all of the legal work for Energy Resources and Logistics, the private electrical power generation arm of CSX.

“It was truly a privilege to have worked with Al,” Mr. Shudtz wrote in an email. “A true giver of advice and support who never failed to do his best for the railroad and for all his colleagues.”

After taking early retirement, he established a solo practice in Bel Air which he described in an autobiographical note as “spills, wills and bills and some codicils.”

In 1957, he married the former Emily Sawders, and during their Baltimore years they lived in Bolton Hill. When he was transferred to Cleveland, they resided in Shaker Heights.

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Both shared a love of old houses and antiques and purchased Bon Air, a home that was built in 1794 by a Frenchman, Claudius Frederick Francis de la Porte, a merchant and ship owner, who had fled Santo Domingo after a rebellion and settled in Bel Air.

The couple spent years restoring the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and had suffered from years of benign neglect.

In his autobiographical notes, Mr. Laisy described it as a “money pit.”

Mr. Laisy, who was the laird of the Highland Society of Harford County, hosted an annual Bagpipes and Beer Party at Bon Air. He was also a member of the St. Andrews Society.

The couple moved to Broadmead 14 years ago.

Mrs. Laisy, who was the owner of Promotion Network, a media service for publishers whose authors go on book tours, died in 2016.

At Mr. Laisy’s request, no services will be held. He willed his body to the Maryland Anatomy Board.

Survivors include a son, Christopher B. Laisy of Knoxville, Tennessee; a daughter, Stephanie A. “Nonnie” Laisy, of Towson; and a grandson.