William Donald Schaefer

Schaefer was born in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Tululu Irene (née Skipper) and William Henry Schaefer, on November 2, 1921.[2][3] His parents were Baptist, and he was of part German ancestry.[4] He spent his childhood at 620 Edgewood Street in the old West Baltimore community off Edmondson Avenue, near Hilton Street and Parkway by Gwynns Falls-Leakin Park.[5] He received early education in Baltimore's city public schools, and later graduated from The Baltimore City College (a public high school) in its centennial class of 1939. Schaefer received an LL.B. from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1942 and an LL.M. in 1954.

Schaefer was a member of the Order of DeMolay in Baltimore as a youth, later inducted into the DeMolay International Hall of Fame. He was also a Freemason and a member of the "Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Maryland". He was a member of "Mystic Circle Lodge No. 104" when he first ran for public office.[6]

When the United States entered World War II on Monday, December 8, 1941, Schaefer joined the United States Army and later achieved officer rank, taking charge of administering hospitals in England and the rest of western Europe. He continued to remain in the U.S. Army Reserves during his academic, legal and political/public service careers until 1979, when he retired with the rank of colonel.

Schaefer resumed his legal career afterwards, practicing real estate law. He had earned his Master of Law degree in 1954 from the University of Baltimore School of Law and formed a general practice law firm with two colleagues. Except for his military service, he lived unmarried with his mother in two different very plain West Baltimore two-story, six-room "daylight-style" rowhouses on Edgewood Street (off Edmondson Avenue) all his life, until moving to the Government House (Maryland Governor's Mansion) at age 65 in 1987.

Schaefer ran for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates (lower chamber of the General Assembly of Maryland) in 1950 and again in 1954, losing both elections.[7] He was successful in his third campaign for a seat on the Baltimore City Council in 1955, when his concern for city planning and housing issues propelled him to a seat representing the 5th Councilmanic District. In 1967, Schaefer ran successfully for Baltimore City Council president and, four years later in 1971, he ran successfully for the mayor's office, when incumbent mayor Thomas L. J. D'Alesandro III, brother of Nancy Pelosi, retired after one term.

Schaefer served four terms as mayor, being first elected in 1971, then re-elected in 1975, 1979 and 1983, each time receiving 85% or more of the vote. He was known for his attention to detail: taking notes of strewn garbage and citing other violations as he rode around for appointments/events in a plain town car with a police officer driver, and ordering them fixed immediately. A famous photograph shows him dressed in a Victorian style red and orange-striped bathing suit, with a straw boater hat, carrying an inflatable rubber duck into the outside seal pool at the then under construction National Aquarium in Baltimore at the Inner Harbor, attracting wide national media attention, to settle a wager that it would not be opened in time in August 1981. In 1984, in a move to give the majority African-American population more power in the city of Baltimore, Schaefer named Bishop L. Robinson as the Baltimore City Police Department's first African-American police commissioner,[8] a position previously dominated by Irish American and Italian American members of the city police department.[9] Baltimore's 1967 police headquarters were renamed for Robinson in 2007.[10]

Throughout his tenure as mayor, Schaefer realized that the closings of large manufacturing plants like Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point (since 1887 in southeastern suburban, but blue-collar Baltimore County, near Dundalk), the largest waterfront steel mill in the world; and the 70-year-old General Motors auto/truck assembly plant on Broening Highway in the southeast city would negatively impact the quality of life in the city of Baltimore and add to the city's unemployment rate. His administration turned to tourism as a possible alternative. He pushed for and saw built a new Baltimore Convention Center along West Pratt Street between South Charles, Sharp and Howard Streets in downtown Baltimore in 1979, enlarged again in the 1990s to keep up with expanding and larger competition for the burgeoning nationwide convention business; as well as the opening of Baltimore's famed "Harborplace", festival marketplace pavilions by shopping center developer and urban visionary James Rouse along the north and west shores of the old "Basin" (Inner Harbor) at East Pratt Street along South Calvert Street, replacing the former small grassy central "Pratt and Light" triangular Samuel Smith Park with its bronze statue of the old brave "Defender of Baltimore" (from the British attack at the Battle of Baltimore crafted at the 1914 Star Spangled Banner Centennial from the War of 1812) and its surrounding "temporary" Light Street parking lots from the last waterfront "urban renewal" project of the Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro, Jr. (1903–1987, served 1947–1959) administration from the late 1940s.[11] Dubbed "America's Best Mayor" at the time by several national magazine stories, Mayor Schaefer was hailed for transforming a deteriorating city into a hub of national tourism, although the groundwork and the original vision for the Inner Harbor project in the early 1960s to succeed the previous Charles Center downtown renewal of 1958–1970 had first been foreseen and crafted two mayoral administrations earlier under progressive/liberal Republican mayor and former governor of Maryland Theodore R. McKeldin (1900–1974, served 1943–1947 and 1963–1967), who was eventually recognized by having the redeveloped plaza facing the new "festival marketplaces" at Pratt, Light and Calvert Streets renamed for him. With new businesses, new hotels, a new National Aquarium and the new convention center, Baltimore had been revived. Harborplace had 18 million visitors its first year, 1980–81.[12] In 1984, Esquire Magazine named Schaefer "the best mayor in America".[13]

Schaefer speaking at USS Antietam commissioning for the United States Navy, 1987

Schaefer at the unveiling of a Monument dedicated to the "Maryland 400", Prospect Park, August 27, 1991.

Schaefer, with running mate Melvin Steinberg, was overwhelmingly elected the 58th governor of Maryland in 1986, defeating Republican challenger Thomas J. Mooney with 82% of the vote, the largest percentage total ever for a contested statewide election in Maryland. He was re-elected in 1990 with almost 60% of the vote. Immediately upon taking office, Schaefer sought to take on the state's unemployment problem. After learning of a proposed closing of a major corporation in western Maryland, he personally went to Allegany County with his top advisors and the Maryland Congressional delegation and devised a plan of state and federal action to meet the needs of the faltering company. The corporation kept its headquarters in Allegany County, saving 600 jobs.[2] Schaefer's legacy includes the construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, stricter measures taken toward preventing and solving the Chesapeake Bay pollution problem, and higher standards for public schools.

Schaefer reappointed Philip Kapneck as Maryland Trade Ambassador, originally appointed by Governor Mandel. Kapneck worked closely with the pro-business governor, bringing overseas companies to Maryland, creating many new jobs and generating revenue for the state.

Schaefer as governor also pushed for the light rail line of electric trains that run 30 miles from Hunt Valley in Baltimore County, through Baltimore, past Oriole Park at Camden Yards, to Cromwell Station/Glen Burnie in Anne Arundel County, near BWI Airport.[17] The first 22.5 miles of the light rail line was opened in April 1992 at a cost of near $400 million. Three extensions totaling 7.5 miles opened in late 1997 at a cost of $106 million.[18]

Detractors remind the public that, in the winter of 1991, Gov. Schaefer compared Maryland's Eastern Shore to an outhouse (he referred to the region as a "shithouse"[19]). When the remark circulated, Eastern Shore residents erupted in protest.

In the 1992 presidential election, Governor Schaefer endorsed Republican President George H.W. Bush over Democratic challenger Bill Clinton.[20] "He was a great man. I liked him; he was a friend. I went up to Camp David with him.".[7] He also endorsed Republican Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley in her bid to succeed him as governor in 1994.

Schaefer stepped down from his position as governor on January 18, 1995 after serving the maximum two four-year terms.

Following his career as governor, Schaefer became Of Counsel to the law firm of Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC, in Baltimore until 1999. The William Donald Schaefer Chair was established at University of Maryland, College Park's School of Public Affairs in 1995. Schaefer held the position until 1999, at which time the program was expanded to include funded internships.

Schaefer had a long-time companion in Hilda Mae Snoops, who was his "official hostess" in the Governor's mansion. She commissioned a controversial Victorian-style outdoor fountain and helped design a rose garden and walkways. The fountain is included in her First Lady-style portrait. After Snoops' death in 1999, the fountain became a source of controversy as Schaefer accused his successor, Parris Glendening, of using it to get political revenge by turning it off, supposedly to save water even though it recycles existing water. Upon becoming governor, Robert Ehrlich held a ceremony to turn the water flow back on in the fountain. Snoops is interred in the mausoleum at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens, with an adjacent place reserved for Schaefer.

In 1998, three years after leaving the governorship, with the sudden death of longtime (forty years in office) Comptroller and Maryland political legend Louis L. Goldstein of Calvert County in southern Maryland, Schaefer ran in the special election for the position of Comptroller of Maryland against Republican Mark Epstein. He won by a substantial margin, 62% to 38%. Schaefer came into the office on January 25, 1999. In 2002, he had remained extremely popular in Maryland and received almost 68% of the vote in the general election.

Schaefer feuded frequently with Governor Parris Glendening at the bi-monthly Board of Public Works (BPW) meetings. Schaefer once called Glendening a "despot" and often chided him. Schaefer frequently referred to Glendening as "Ayatollah." Glendening endorsed and paid for advertisements on behalf of Schaefer's 2002 Democratic primary opponent, Secretary of State John T. Willis, but Schaefer defeated him easily.[21] Glendening's degree of unpopularity was such that it was reported his support for Willis might cost Willis votes.[22] Schaefer enjoyed considerably warmer relations with Governor Robert Ehrlich, the Republican who succeeded Glendening on January 15, 2003.

The flag-draped casket of William Donald Schaefer being carried into historic Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, at North Charles and East Saratoga Streets, April 27, 2011

Schaefer died at the age of 89 on April 18, 2011, at his latest home in Catonsville.[32] He had recently been hospitalized due to pneumonia at St. Agnes Hospital in southwest Baltimore and was receiving hospice care at the time of his death. Schaefer's funeral was held at his longtime parish, Old St. Paul's Church (Episcopal) (oldest church in the city, founded 1692), at the southeast corner of North Charles and East Saratoga Streets in downtown, and was buried at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens near Towson in suburban Baltimore County.[33]

In 1978, Schaefer received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.[34]

In 2008, Schaefer moved the "Civic Fund", which he had established and used while Mayor of Baltimore to make small grants to neighborhoods for projects such as erecting flagpoles or cultivating community gardens, to the Baltimore Community Foundation, adding to it his leftover campaign funds and proceeds from the sale of his house. After its settlement, $1.4 million from the late governor's estate was added in 2012 to this fund. The William Donald Schaefer Civic Fund is a permanent endowment which continues to provide small grants for neighborhood projects.[35] Two years before his death, a statue of Schaefer was unveiled in Baltimore's Inner Harbor as a gift by construction magnate Willard Hackerman.[36][37]

Several buildings have been dedicated in Schaefer's honor:

• William Donald Schaefer Building, state office building at the northwest corner of St. Paul and East Baltimore Streets (former bankrupt Merritt Savings & Loan Association building) in downtown Baltimore, Maryland.[38]
• William Donald Schaefer Engineering Building at Morgan State University on Hillen Road in northwest city.
• William Donald Schaefer Hall at St. Mary's College of Maryland, in St. Mary's County where he served on the Board of Trustees for years
• Governor William Donald Schaefer International Terminal (Concourse E) at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
• William Donald Schaefer Auditorium at The Baltimore City College (a public high school), where Schaefer had graduated in the centennial class of 1939, and was responsible for the funding of $10 million for a major renovation in 1977–1979.

• Culture of Baltimore

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Donald Schaefer.

• William Donald Schaefer – Maryland State Archives.
• About William Donald Schaefer at the Wayback Machine (archived April 20, 2006)
• Schaefer and Snoops: Ageless Friendship, Washington Post
• Hilda Mae Snoops Fountain pictures
• "Schaefer pops up at a new location"
• Political Nomenclature: William Schaefer Doesn't Mince Words.
• Appearances on C-SPAN