Munhall’s mayor for 30 years, collaborated on The Waterfront
When former Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch heard about the passing last week of longtime Munhall Mayor Raymond Bodnar, he couldn’t help but think about all the times Mr. Bodnar lent his support to many of the initiatives that helped to get his foundation off the ground.
“Whatever we were doing, it was important to be able to get the community support, and he was excited about everything we were doing here,” said Mr. Batch, a Homestead native who founded the nonprofit Best of the Batch Foundation. “It’s sad to lose someone so important to the community.”
For 53 years, Mr. Bodnar served as a public official in Munhall, including 30 years as mayor, before his retirement in 2017.
Mr. Bodnar, 86, died April 26 of heart failure.
He grew up in Munhall, graduating in 1951 from Homestead High School, where he met Taylor Allderdice student Jane Bakaysza during a basketball playoff game.
The couple married in 1957, two years after Mr. Bodnar was discharged from the Army, where he served stateside during the Korean War. Mrs. Bodnar died in 2017.
For 40 years, Mr. Bodnar worked as a control clerk in the data processing division of USX Corp., though you wouldn’t know it when you spoke to him, said his niece Angela Garcia.
“I don’t remember ever once hearing about his work, but he always wanted to talk about the community and what events and gatherings were coming up,” said Ms. Garcia, of Emsworth. “He saw public service as his calling and it was his hometown, so he couldn’t have been more proud of that.”
Mr. Bodnar’s first elected office was as borough auditor, where he served from 1964 to 1972, when he was elected to council.
He served on council, including as president, until 1987, when he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of former Mayor William “Gummy” Knight, who died.
Later that year, Mr. Bodnar, a Democrat, won the first of many mayoral elections.
“He loved that job,” his niece said. “He loved the borough building — it was his second home. He and his wife didn’t have children and I think the residents of Munhall, they were his kids. I mean politics is politics, but I think he did it from a deep love of community.”
Mr. Bodnar also served as a coach, manager and board member of the Munhall Youth Baseball League for more than three decades, and he was often one of the first to know when a local couple got engaged, his niece said.
“As mayor, he married hundreds of couples, including myself and my sister,” Ms. Garcia said.
But the job wasn’t always roses.
When the U.S. Steel Homestead Works shuttered in 1986, Munhall and other Mon Valley communities were devastated.
The clout — and perhaps more important — the collaboration between Mr. Bodnar and the mayors of Homestead and West Homestead were key to the success of the development of The Waterfront at the former steel mill site, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said.
“They realized they were in it together. They all suffered the same economic hardships and bringing it back, revitalizing it with The Waterfront, was a major accomplishment,” said Mr. Fitzgerald about the 300-acre mixed-use retail and residential development that is split among the three boroughs. “They created the climate that allowed The Waterfront to come to fruition.”
There was a stunning 107 years of collective experience among the three leaders, including John Dindak, the 92-year-old mayor of West Homestead since 1973, and Homestead Mayor Betty Esper, who also graduated from high school with Mr. Bodnar.
“We three always had a good time as mayors together,” said Ms. Esper, who has been mayor since 1990. “We disagreed sometimes, but we were still friends.”
She and Mr. Bodnar rarely passed up an opportunity for some good-natured ribbing, said Ms. Esper, and she often teased him about all of the “Homestead” landmarks that were actually located in the much-larger Munhall.
For his part, Mr. Bodnar never let her forget she was four months older than he, Ms. Esper said.
“The Carnegie Library of Homestead and Homestead Park are both in Munhall, and I would rub it in all the time,” she said, laughing. “He’d tell everybody I was older than him, but I used to say that I was cuter. I miss the camaraderie we had. I’m old enough that I miss a lot of people now. I miss kidding with Ray and the three of us getting together.”
In 2016, Munhall officials designated Feb. 18 as “Raymond G. Bodnar Day,” and
Mr. Fitzgerald followed suit on Nov. 5, 2017, with a countywide day of recognition.
“Mayor Bodnar was just a pillar of the community of Munhall,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “He and his wife, Jane, were great public servants who cared deeply about their community and spent their life serving it.”
Current health restrictions made a more traditional funeral impossible, so hundreds of residents lined the sidewalks, along with police, firefighters and public service employees, to honor the former mayor during a funeral procession through the streets of Munhall on April 28.
“I couldn’t believe how many people turned out,” his niece said. “The number of signs and the people were so touching.”
Mr. Batch, whose foundation is located next to the borough offices on West Street, was among those who turned out to pay their respects.
“You would like to send him out the right way, but of course you couldn’t,” he said. “But everyone lined up on the streets to say our goodbyes. We lost a great man.”
A memorial service will be planned for a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to St. Therese Church, 1 St. Therese Court, Munhall, Pa. 15120, and the American Heart Association: www.heart.org.