Former Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax, an outspoken advocate for the environment and the mentally ill, died yesterday at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital after a brief illness. He was 82.

A skilled trial lawyer and orator, Mr. Gartlan helped write protections for the Chesapeake Bay and, as head of a legislative commission in the late 1990s, won reforms of the state's embattled mental-health system.

Mr. Gartlan's death was disclosed in an e-mail from his longtime political adviser, Christopher J. Spanos, a lobbyist, and confirmed by the Senate Clerk's Office.

Mr. Gartlan's daughter, Joan, told radio station WTOP in Washington that her father had suffered a blood infection.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine ordered the state flag flown at half-staff in honor of Mr. Gartlan, whom Kaine described as a "true statesman [who] wore his heart on his sleeve when it came to issues of social and economic justice."

Mr. Gartlan served in the Virginia Senate from 1972 until 2000. He headed the Privileges and Elections Committee, the Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee and the health and human resources subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee.

A native of Glen Head, a hamlet on New York's Long Island, Mr. Gartlan came to the Washington area as a student at Georgetown University and its law school. Mr. Gartlan, who served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1943 to 1946, made his home at Mason Neck, enjoying a sweeping view of the Potomac River.

Mr. Gartlan's views on most issues were reliably liberal, except on abortion. Mr. Gartlan opposed it because of his Catholicism, and could address the intersection of religion and politics with disarming humor.

Asked during a chat with state Capitol reporters how a faith dominated by celibate men could tell women what to do with their bodies, Mr. Gartlan peered over his signature steel-frame glasses and replied with a smile, "Because they have the votes."

Mr. Gartlan could be publicly withering in his criticism, even disregarding shared party affiliation to chastise a fellow Democrat, Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, during a dispute over management of the state's recession-wracked finances in the early 1990s.

On his retirement from the General Assembly, Mr. Gartlan continued his interest in environmental and health issues, serving as chairman of the multistate Chesapeake Bay Commission and becoming a trustee of Inova Mount Vernon Hospital.

Mr. Gartlan is survived by his wife, the former Fredona Marie Manderfield, and six children. Funeral plans were not immediately available.
Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.