Stephen R. Reed
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Stephen Russell Reed (born August 9, 1949, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) is the current and longest-serving mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He moved to Harrisburg with his parents as a boy.
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[edit] Biography
After moving to Harrisburg in the 1950's, Reed attended Bishop McDevitt High School, where he graduated in 1967. He went on to attend Dickinson College, but did not graduate. He later served an emergency medical technician in Harrisburg while pursuing his early political career.
[edit] Political Life
Active in the Democratic Party as a teenager, Reed headed the Teenage Democrats of Pennsylvania, was Vice-President of the College Young Democrats of Pennsylvania, and was active in many civic activities. Among his early work experiences was a staff job for the Democratic Caucus in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
In the Democratic landslide victory year of 1974, when he was 24, Reed campaigned hard for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and upset four-term Republican incumbent George Gekas, who later became a Pennsylvania state senator and U.S. Congressman. He would go on to serve three terms as a member of the state’s House of Representatives until 1980.
[edit] As Mayor
Re-elected to the state house in 1976 and 1978, Reed was elected Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Commissioner in 1979 and Mayor of Harrisburg in 1981. He has won re-election as Mayor in 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2001 and most recently in 2005.
During Reed's tenure, restaurants, museums, hotels, several large office buildings and new residences were constructed within the city limits. Reed was instrumental in the city getting its minor league baseball team, the Harrisburg Senators, and later led the city to purchase the team when it was sold to a buyer who intended to move it out of the region.
Reed is credited with conceiving and developing Harrisburg's City Island park, the National Civil War Museum, the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, and the high school that accompanied it. In 2000, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania placed Reed in charge of the failing Harrisburg School District, for which he imposed a massive reform and rehabilitation project.
Reed's successes are balanced by setback: population loss, mounting debt, and continued poverty remain challenges as Harrisburg's slow recovery continues.
Those setbacks notwithstanding, in December 2006 the City Mayors organization recognized Reed's achievements by awarding him third place in its annual World Mayor competition.
