The funeral of former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed at the Cathedral of St. Patrick.
Joe Hermitt / PennLive
Stephen Reed loved Harrisburg ‘until his dying breath’: Funeral Mass for ‘mayor for life’ held Monday
Reed, who has a complicated history with the city and many ups and downs during and after his tenure, died Jan. 25 after a long battle with cancer.
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Steve Marroni/PennLive
Joe Hermitt / PennLive
The funeral of former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed at the Cathedral of St. Patrick.
(Harrisburg) — Stephen Reed had a love affair with the City of Harrisburg that endured until his dying breath.
Anyone who knew Reed, Harrisburg’s “mayor for life,” knew that, Father Joshua Brommer said during a Mass of Christian burial Monday at the St. Patrick Cathedral.
And judging by the turnout of roughly 300 people, it looked like the city loved him back.
Reed, who has a complicated history with the city and many ups and downs during and after his tenure, died Jan. 25 after a long battle with cancer.
Today was a day for the city to say “goodbye.”
Among those attending were longtime friends Coroner Graham Hetrick and former Carlisle Mayor Kirk Wilson, as well as Harrisburg Police Commissioner Thomas Carter, Fire Chief Brian Enterline, Dauphin County’s three commissioners and many more friends, family members, dignitaries and city residents.
In the service, Brommer remembered Reed as someone who continued his life of service, even after he was no longer mayor. Right before the evening Mass on Saturdays, Brommer would see Reed picking up trash from around the cathedral, clearing the sidewalks for those coming to the service.
“Steve began to educate me on many things, but especially the city,” Brommer recalled. He’d point out the buildings, the history.
The conversations would get deeper sometimes, and they would talk about his fight with cancer, about mortality, and at the end, they would talk about how Reed wanted a simple and humble Catholic funeral.
“I thought, ‘yeah, right,’” Brommer joked, getting a chuckle from the mourners who knew him. But Reed did get what he wished for on Monday. “While the celebration today necessarily expresses Mayor Reed’s dedication and lifelong service to our community, it bears the humble simplicity of every Christian’s funeral.”
Brommer said Reed’s love affair with the city began when he was just 15, working on another mayor’s campaign. A life path he would soon be taking, himself.
Dan Gleiter / PennLive
People talk after former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed’s funeral mass, which was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Harrisburg, February 3, 2020. Reed died Jan. 25 at age 70 after a long battle with cancer.
“He really wanted to be mayor,” Brommer said. “He was happy to be mayor of the city.”
And if you look around the city, you see the work of Mayor Reed, Brommer said. Restaurants, office buildings, hotels, Harrisburg University, City Island a Minor League baseball team. He was at nearly every fire, every crime scene, personally assessing the situation.
“He lived by the rhythm of this city,” Brommer said. “He knew its struggles, and he saw its possibilities.”
But he was not a politician. Reed was a public servant.
“It was not about him or his next election, but accomplishing good for this city that he loved,” Brommer said. “It was about bringing light into the dark recesses of a worn-down city that needed to be renewed so that it could shine again.”
After the service, his friend, Hetrick, said he had known Reed for well over 30 years, and he remembers his friend’s dreams and ambitions that sometimes seem so far-fetched. At first, anyway.
Harrisburg Patriot News
FILE PHOTO: Mayor Reed speaks at a press conference about Dauphin County Democratic Party unity in Strawberry Square, October 1991.
“I remember standing in front of the courthouse, that is now city hall, and we were looking at two corners across the street, and he said ‘Graham, I’m going to put a Hilton up there,’” he recalled. “He had that type of vision.”
And for the last 14 years, Hetrick said he has been an adjunct professor at another one of Reed’s “dreams.” Harrisburg University.
Wilson, another friend, knew Reed both in office and out of office, and though they had both been out of office for years, they still, half-jokingly, referred to each other as “your honor,” or “Mr. Mayor.”
Wilson said all one has to do is look around the city to see how he turned it around from the brink.
And though Reed is blamed for using city money to fund a personal obsession with historical artifacts — to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and leading to future financial hardships, Reed will be remember for the good that he has done, Wilson said.
“Steve Reed’s legacy is secure for in perpetuity,” Wilson said.
Inside the Cathedral, the morning light bouncing through stained glass and Reed’s casket sitting front and center, draped in white before the altar, Brommer told the attendees he knew Reed through the very end of his life.
And in those final moments, one would not be shocked to know where his thoughts were.
“On his death bed, Stephen Reed wasn’t concerned about his legacy. He wanted to know why there was work left uncompleted,” Brommer said. “He died with the same concern that preoccupied his heart and his mind while he lived.”
The city he loved.
And the city that loved him.
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