Former Seattle mayor Charley Royer dies at 84

Charley Royer, Seattle’s longest-serving mayor, has died at age 84. He was the city’s 48th chief executive.

Mayor from 1978-1990, Royer was ahead of his time in many ways. He established low-income housing to combat homelessness. Royer decided that the city would recognize domestic partnerships and provided city benefits to those families. He oversaw the development of the Washington State Convention Center.

“He was a good and honorable man,” Ron Dotzauer, political analyst and head of Strategies 360 told MyNorthwest. “He brought a lot of energy to the table.”

Royer was born in Medford, OR in 1939. He joined the Army in 1961 and after leaving the Army studied Journalism at the University of Oregon. Royer was an anchor for KING 5-TV before jumping into the political world.

KIRO Newsradio last spoke with the three-term former mayor in 2023, when he weighed in on the whereabouts of the “Seattle Spirit” in modern times.

“Our spirit is not pep rally spirit,” Royer said. “It’s almost a ‘golden rule’ kind of spirit, and it’s something that I think still exists. But when you start growing as fast as we have been growing, you get a lot of people who don’t know the handshake,” he continued, using the metaphor of fraternal organizations with arcane traditions. “They don’t know that they’re supposed to not be angry about gay people. They don’t know that Republicans sometimes, like Dan Evans and a bunch of Republicans we had in office, are for the environment, they’re for people paying their fair share of taxes.”

As Royer told it, it was almost like that 19th-century Seattle Spirit morphed and evolved into the 20th-century Seattle Process, which is the sometimes – OK, often – pejorative name for a style of big-tent public engagement in decision-making which can seemingly go on for years or even decades, which can often frustrate citizens watching from outside the big tent.

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Royer said the modern version of the Seattle Spirit is also about getting over old rivalries like the one with Tacoma – which dated to the railroad age but which continued until recently.

“I couldn’t believe it when the Port of Tacoma decided that it would partner up with the Port of Seattle,” Royer said. “They were fierce competitors. Tacoma and Seattle have always competed for business, and it’s been unhelpful to everybody.

“Our cities in the region have not collaborated and so those grudges and competitions have blinded us to some opportunities,” Royer added.

When asked by KIRO Newsradio to give advice to incoming mayor Bruce Harrell, he said good working relationships with the city council and the media are key.

“Don’t criticize the council, even in private with your department, and don’t engage in bad mouthing the council with the citizens or with others who have some case against the council,” Royer said. “They know it when you’re doing that, it’s almost like an animal kind of sense that they sense that you have been talking about them, or they hear about it, and that will negate any entreaties you make with the council, or any approach you make for the council to try to work with them. So don’t engage in that, and certainly don’t engage in beating up the press.”

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One big part of that skill and leadership emerging and taking action, said Charles Royer, is about the timing and about a critical mass of the public having the will and the stomach necessary to tackle the big issues.

Royer said honesty is critical to a functional political system. Even though Royer didn’t share the political views of Ronald Reagan, who was president during much of Royer’s tenure at Seattle City Hall, he did admire him.

“I thought he was a pretty good president. And he was an honest man, I think, and he was a caring person,” Royer said. “But he also told the truth. He may occasionally have, in some of his stories, bent the truth a little bit to his advantage – particularly if he was campaigning – but he didn’t outright lie.”

Royer is survived by his wife Lynn Claudon, two children; Suzanne Royer McCone and Jordan Royer, and 4 grandchildren and one great grandchild. The cause of his death is not known.

Contributing: KIRO 7

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Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.