I’ve been trying to figure out what to say about William Donald Schaefer, who spent 16 years as a Baltimore councilman, 15 years as Baltimore mayor, eight years as governor of Maryland, and eight years as state comptroller, and who died today at age 89.
I first met him when I was 9, and he was shaking hands at a suburban shopping mall, where my dad was buying me school shoes, during his first campaign for governor, which he won with 82 percent of the vote. (For real.) I wrote a paper on him in college. I interviewed him when I joined the staff of the Baltimore Sun. And I often think of his trademark exhortation: “Do it now! Do it now! Not tomorrow! Do it now!”
Schaefer was a constant gift to journalists: He referred to his successor as governor as “the Ayatollah.” He called an opponent “Mother Hubbard” and fat. When a water main broke, he had city workers erect a sign: “New Fountain in Your Neighborhood.” At a press conference, he pointed a gun at an AP reporter.
He dedicated his life to public service, to helping people and improving the city. He built the National Aquarium, Harborplace, Camden Yards, the light rail, the convention center. He opened city pools, got people jobs, and sold hundreds of abandoned houses for a dollar each, to revitalize neighborhoods.
I probably wouldn’t be here, in Baltimore, at this moment, if not for him. I suppose that says enough.
