Charley Royer, Seattle’s longest serving mayor, dies at 84

Charles “Charley” Royer, who served as Seattle’s mayor from 1978-1990, died Friday morning at his home in Gearhart, Oregon.

Royer was born in Oregon, where he studied journalism at the University of Oregon. He worked at KOIN in Portland, and later KING in Seattle, where he worked closely with his brother Bob, who died before him.

According to a statement released on Friday evening, he was co-chair of Friends of the Seattle Waterfront Committee and a former chairman and member of the Ballpark Public Facilities District.

“As the 48th mayor of Seattle, he accrued multiple accomplishments over his 12 years leading the city, tackling a number of issues ranging from healthcare, housing and poverty. His accomplishments included gaining public support for precedent-setting low-income housing ballot measures in 1981 (the Senior Housing Bond) and in 1986 (the Low-Income Multi-family Levy). This established an ongoing city commitment to putting forward low-income housing measures to the Seattle public, offered and renewed by every mayor since 1990.”

Former Mayor Norm Rice, a political rival, called him "one of the most likeable and hard charging guys you ever met."

Rice, who was chair of the City Council’s budget committee, challenged and lost to Royer in 1985 before winning election to City Hall in 1989.

“He really did care about people and was very interested making sure people were whole in their life. And sometimes we would argue about how you spend [money]…. But other than that, we cared about the same thing.”

Rice said Royer cared "about the vibrancy of the city and making sure we had a good one by the time he got ready to leave. We were great friends.”

Former mayor Greg Nickels called Royer “the Dean of Seattle Mayors” for being the only mayor in city history to serve three four-year terms. “Even two terms hasn’t happened since my time.”

“Charley was a good man and a transformative Mayor,” Nickels told KUOW.

Royer is survived by his wife Lynn Claudon and two children, Suzanne Royer McCone and Jordan Royer.