George Latimer, St. Paul's longest-serving mayor, dies at 89

George Latimer, a chatty New York lawyer who moved to St. Paul in the 1960s and went on to rejuvenate and transform the capital city in 13½ years as its charismatic and visionary mayor, died Aug. 18 at his St. Paul residence after years of failing health. He was 89.

After serving on the St. Paul school board and as a University of Minnesota regent, Latimer ran as the DFL candidate for mayor in 1976, promising to revitalize downtown and improve neighborhood housing. He won by a 3-point margin.

It would never be that close again for Latimer. In five bids for re-election, the hugely popular liberal mayor won with upwards of 70% of the vote in a city long known for its conservative bent. No one has served longer as mayor of St. Paul.

Those who had a close-up view of Latimer's years in office — 1976 to 1990 — say his biggest accomplishment wasn't the roster of successful projects he championed, from District Energy and Bandana Square to the Heritage Preservation Commission and the Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps.

Instead, he's best remembered for infusing St. Paul with his upbeat spirit and pulling the city out of its doldrums in the late 1960s and 1970s when it was widely seen as the lethargic mate to its more glamorous twin across the river.

'He made people feel good about the city'

When it came to boosting St. Paul's profile, Latimer was without peer.

"He made people feel good about the city," said Jim Scheibel, a Hamline University professor who was City Council president during Latimer's time in office and succeeded him as mayor in 1990. "When he and I did disagree, we'd always end up laughing."

"George not only was able to fight for his city, he had the broadest coalition that I've ever seen," said Susan Kimberly,a former City Council member and deputy mayor who worked with three city administrations.

Despite his political success, Latimer ran for higher office only once, when he challenged incumbent Gov. Rudy Perpich in 1986 in the DFL primary election. But there was little difference politically between the two, and Latimer's patented charm didn't translate as well outstate. Perpich beat him handily. The two rivals later patched things up.

"I wanted to run for governor in the worst way," Latimer said in 2015. "And I did!"

After stepping down as mayor in 1990, Latimer became dean of the Hamline University Law School and spent three years commuting to Washington, D.C., as special assistant to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros in the Clinton administration.

He began teaching urban studies at Macalester College, not far from his Crocus Hill home, in 1996.

"We were lucky to have him as a member of our community and we extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends," Macalester College President Suzanne M. Rivera said.

For years, he continued to work as a part-time labor arbitrator.

But it was Latimer's work as mayor, and helping the city return to relevance, that will be his lasting legacy, said Dane Smith, a consultant and former think tank executive who covered Latimer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

"I think it's pretty safe to say George Latimer was one of the most important people in St. Paul's story over the last 100 years," Smith said.

Known for the bounce in his step and his once jet-black beard — arguably the most famous whiskers in St. Paul since James J. Hill — Latimer easily transitioned to elder statesman and gray hair in his later years, leaning on a walker at labor luncheons and kaffeeklatsches. But he remained quick with a quip, still had that distinctive smile.

Asked about the impressive view of the Minneapolis skyline from his sixth-floor University Avenue apartment, Latimer joked: "I just close the blinds."

Harry Melander, former president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, befriended Latimer after his years as mayor. Melander, an East Sider, said Latimer used sincerity and genuineness to overcome St. Paul's somewhat parochial reputation with outsiders.

Latimer "was the rare guy that became beloved here," Melander said. "He was like a guy who grew up on East Side. You knew where he was coming from. What you saw was what you got."

In 2014, Latimer was momentarily speechless when the city named its iconic beaux-arts downtown library after him. "I'm hard put to think of a function in the city that I would be prouder to be attached to than learning and libraries," he said.

"Everybody respected him, everybody liked him, regardless of what their politics were," said John Mannillo, a developer who began working with Latimer on downtown development in 1978. "He was willing to talk to anyone. And St. Paul was fortunate to have him for its mayor."

The 'epitome of what a mayor should be'

Latimer was born June 23, 1935, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., where his father, William, ran a grocery store. He graduated from St. Michael's College near Burlington, Vt., and married Nancy Moore in 1959.

When Latimer took a job as a law clerk in St. Paul in the summer of 1962, the couple fell in love with the city, he told the Star Tribune. They moved there after he graduated from Columbia Law School in New York in 1963.

Latimer was 34 and working as a labor lawyer when he first ran for office in 1970, winning an open seat on the St. Paul school board as a DFL-endorsed candidate. He quickly established himself as one of the board's most progressive members, at one point backing establishment of an ungraded experimental school.

By now a rising star among Minnesota Democrats, Latimer was elected to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents by legislators in 1975. He resigned as a regent when he was elected mayor the following year.

Latimer's immediate goals as mayor included winning the confidence of the business community and boosting downtown development. In the next few years, he persuaded the private sector to invest millions in the city's commercial and housing property, and helped bring in millions in federal funds for Energy Park, District Heating and development in Lowertown and the neglected riverfront.

Latimer drew national attention in the 1980s. He was a leader with the U.S. Conference of Mayors and served as president of the National League of Cities from 1983 to 1984. St. Paul was among the "Hot Cities" that made the cover of Newsweek in 1989.

"He was the epitome of what a mayor should be," said Norm Coleman, who was St. Paul's mayor for eight years before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002. "He led the city. He was bold, optimistic, energetic. George really set the standard and was very successful at that. His vision of riverfront development really inspired me."

Not all of Latimer's downtown projects enjoyed sustained success. He later acknowledged the architectural shortcomings of Town Square as well as the financial issues that plagued Galtier (now Cray) Plaza, a housing and retail development that lost millions.

His final years in office were clouded by charges of corruption in the police and fire departments, and critics said he stood too long by a corrupt fire chief whose associates profited from arson. He decided not to run for re-election in 1989.

"I have asked him, 'What are you really proud of?' And he'd always say, 'The [Hubert H. Humphrey] Job Corps,'" Scheibel said of the program's 1981 move into the former Bethel College campus near the State Fairgrounds. "The neighbors did not want it, but George stood his ground."

Chris Coleman, who served three terms as St. Paul mayor from 2006 to 2018, credited Latimer for "defining what the role looked like. George was always the person I looked up to, long before I thought about becoming mayor. ... He was just tremendously liked. He was funny, charming, self-deprecating."

And he was willing to admit when he got it wrong, Coleman said: "George used to teach a class [at Macalester] on his colossal failures. He was the first to acknowledge he made mistakes. But he [made mistakes] with the idea of making the city better."

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher who served on the St. Paul City Council in the 1980s, called the Latimer years "the Camelot of St. Paul."

"I considered him a mentor," Fletcher said. "He's the finest elected official that I ever encountered in 40 years. His people skills were amazing."

In an interview with the Star Tribune before leaving office in 1989, Latimer summed up his years as mayor.

"I may be a shrewder politician than people give me credit for. You'd be hard put to find a promise that I have ever made in politics, publicly or privately, of a specific nature," he said. "All you ever can promise is a wholehearted effort, with a sense of mission and a publicly shared sense of what those objectives or missions are."

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Aug. 26 at Church of the Assumption, 51 W. Seventh St., St. Paul.