Doug DeGood (1947-2019): Toledo Mayor oversaw Portside, One SeaGate projects

Mayor oversaw police strike, Portside, One SeaGate projects.

By Mark Zaborney / The Blade
Thu, 05 Dec 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Doug DeGood, who was elected mayor of Toledo at age 30, served three terms as a downtown revival dawned, and who steered the city through fiscal crisis to sound footing, died Sunday in Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. He was 72.

He suffered massive brain injury when he fell falling backwards while walking up steps, his wife, Karen DeGood, said. The couple were in Washington to visit family for Thanksgiving. They’ve lived in the Atlanta area since 2000.

Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz recalled Mr. DeGood’s importance “as the city transitioned from the much more affluent era in the 1950s and 1960s.

“He was a planner and a thinker, and in really turbulent times he tried to become the architect for how the modern city had to be run,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said.

Mr. DeGood ran for Toledo City Council with Democratic Party backing in 1973, but did not survive the primary. He was appointed to council in January, 1975, to fill the unexpired term of Carol Pietrykowski, who was appointed to be Lucas County clerk of courts. He was elected to a full two-year term that fall and was regarded by then-Mayor Harry Kessler as one of the best members of council, said James Ruvolo, a former chairman of the Lucas County and Ohio Democratic parties.

“He viewed public service as just that,” Mr. Ruvolo said. “He was very articulate, and he could be very persuasive. His arguments were logical, and he studied the issue. It wasn’t like he came in and opened the agenda and it was the first time he saw it.”

Mr. DeGood in 1977 defeated Max Reddish, the Republican candidate, to become the youngest big-city mayor in the United States — and Toledo’s youngest mayor since its founding 140 years earlier.

Mayors then served two-year terms and sat on City Council, though elected separately. A city manager, named by the mayor and confirmed by council, oversaw the city’s daily functions.

Mr. DeGood regarded his mayoral predecessor, Mr. Kessler, as a mentor. And both “tried to be strong mayors within the system, and both were,” Mr. Ruvolo said.

“He was up to the job, but he knew it was a job that you had to go to every day and to work at, particularly with tough fiscal times, and corral votes out of council,” Mr. Ruvolo said.

Mr. DeGood’s wife said, “He had a really deep understanding of how things work and how you work through and with other people and the things they care about to make the case — to have coalition partners, people working with you to get things done.”

In recalling two city managers he’d named, J. Michael Porter, who died in 2017, and David Boston, who died in 2018, Mr. DeGood told The Blade of their willingness to work 70-hour weeks. He put in similar hours.

“People say politicians are overpaid. With Doug DeGood, that was absolutely not the case. That man worked 24/7,” said Peter Ujvagi, a member of city council who added that he and Mr. DeGood as young men liked to discuss politics and economics, often until the wee hours.

Michael Beazley, current Oregon city administrator who in his 20s worked on Mr. DeGood’s mayoral campaigns, said he was thoughtful, smart, and “a mostly introverted guy, for a politician.

“He was a policy guy who liked to focus on the challenges of the job. He was much happier putting his head down working in the office than he was going out to a parade,” said Mr. Beazley, a former chairman of the Lucas County Democratic Party.

Mr. DeGood in 2007 credited Mr. Kessler with “the initiation of the downtown revitalization.” But during Mr. DeGood’s tenure, the riverfront One SeaGate was built as the headquarters of Owens-Illinois Inc. and Portside Festival Marketplace was begun. Government Center opened to serve city, county, and state government, and he was the first to occupy the 22nd-floor mayor’s office.

“He was really committed to Toledo and Toledo’s thriving as a community. The downtown revitalization was really important,” his wife said.

Donna Owens, who succeeded Mr. DeGood as mayor, said downtown development continued during her time in office, but “the beginning of it was when he was mayor. Mayors are supposed to build on each other.”

In 1979, a breakdown in negotiations with city police and fire unions led to a 48-hour walkout by safety forces. The mayhem that followed — countless blazes set, destruction of city property, a bus driver slain during a robbery — brought unwanted national attention to the city.

Mr. DeGood collapsed in his office from the stress and spent 24 hours in the hospital. A judge granted the city an injunction requiring workers to return to the job, and they agreed to as talks continued.

“That strike took a lot out of him,” Mr. Ruvolo said. “That weighed on him for years. He did the right things. He was tough where he needed to be tough.”

The city’s money woes worsened the next year. City workers were laid off, city parks weren’t maintained, and refuse collection was limited.

Voters in 1982 approved a 0.75 percent temporary increase in income tax, and they’ve continued to approve that additional tax at intervals since.

“That was one of his greatest accomplishments,” said Ms. Owens, then a Republican city council member who was a chairman of the campaign with Mr. Kessler, a Democrat. “It was so needed and to this day is so needed.”

Though endorsed by the Democratic Party, Mr. DeGood did not seek re-election in 1983. He had a consulting business for years afterward, but was largely out of the public eye.

“Once you’ve had that kind of a job, you need some time and space to have a private life,” his wife said. “I guess that speaks to who he was. He wasn’t an egomaniac who needed the public limelight and all the attention.”

Douglas Kent DeGood was born May 4, 1947, to Freda and Kenneth DeGood. His father, an educator, became a University of Toledo associate dean of education and served on the Washington Local board of education.

Mr. DeGood was a graduate of Whitmer High School, where he played basketball. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from UT — and remained a follower of UT teams. He worked for the YMCA as a program developer early in his career and served on the Lucas County Board of Education.

Surviving are his wife, the former Karen Chapman, whom he married July 19, 1975; sons Alex and Kevin DeGood; sister, Janice Tobias, and four grandchildren.

No public services are scheduled.

The family suggests tributes to a UT scholarship fund.

Staff writer Sarah Elms contributed to this report.

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