W.D. Schaefer, former Md. governor, dies

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- William Donald Schaefer, the colorfully outspoken and combative Maryland governor and four-term Baltimore mayor who oversaw the transformation of downtown from a gritty urban center into a tourist attraction, died Monday. He was 89.

Schaefer died at his home at the Charlestown retirement community outside Baltimore, said former aide Lainy LeBow-Sachs.

Schaefer was mayor from 1971 to 1986 and battled to fill potholes as mayor and never missed an opportunity to tout his hometown, even jumping in a seal pool while wearing a turn-of-the century bathing suit and holding a rubber ducky to promote a new aquarium.

The Democrat was a Maryland political icon who held statewide office into his 80s. But his brashness and unpredictability made for a tumultuous two terms as governor, starting in 1987. Fellow politicians and citizens who did not agree with him felt his wrath. He tracked down a woman who made a rude gesture to him and wrote her, "Your action only exceeds the ugliness of your face." Schaefer disliked being called a "bricks-and-mortar" politician. But he built his reputation as a man who got things done with projects such Baltimore's Inner Harbor and a new stadium for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.

He approached every task with intensity. His philosophy was summed up by his two favorite phrases: "Do it now" and "Time is not on our side." Schaefer's success as mayor helped him to a landslide victory in the 1986 gubernatorial race, when he got 82 percent of the vote. But the unconventional leadership style and prickly personality that made him a popular mayor did not work well at the state level.

When citizens criticized him in letters to newspapers or calls to radio shows, Schaefer called them on the phone or wrote them nasty letters."You are everything that speaks of stupidity," he wrote one critic. He dropped in at the home of another critic to defend himself.