Stephen R. Reed
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Stephen Russell Reed (1950 — ) is the current and longest-serving mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and moved with his parents to Harrisburg as a young man.
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 a Pennsylvania state senator and U.S. Congressman.
Working in the state capitol, Reed became Harrisburg's first full-time state representative.
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. Reed then decided to not run for anything else and won re-election as Mayor in 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997, and 2001.
His three-decade mayoralty was distinguished by a rapid transformation of Harrisburg from an old, largely abandoned industrial remnant to a modern, attractive post-industrial city serving as a regional magnet as well as a state capitol.
During Reed's tenure, restaurants, museums, and large office buildings and new residences were constructed. Numerous parades, competitions, hotels, and businesses also arrived. He was instrumental in the city getting its first minor-league baseball team in decades, and then led the city to purchase the team when it was sold to a buyer who intended to move it out of Harrisburg.
He conceived and developed Harrisburg's National Civil War Museum as well as other museums for Harrisburg, including the failed and often criticized attempt to build a Wild West Museum. He conceived and developed the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, and a high school that accompanied it.
(Note taking over of Hbg School District)
His popularity led him to both stave off black challengers in his majority minority city, and to repeatedly avoid Republican challengers.
"It's not just a job, it's a lifestyle," he once said. A late riser, he would work through the day and long into the night during the regular work week and on weekends.
