Charles Royer, Seattle’s longest-serving mayor, dies at age 84

Charles “Charley” T. Royer, who served as mayor of Seattle for 12 years and led the city as it began to develop into a major metropolitan area – with the typical problems of a big city in the inner city, such as homelessness – died Friday morning at the age of 84, a family spokesman said.

Royer, whose three terms as mayor from 1978 to 1990 marked the longest tenure as mayor in Seattle’s history, died at his home in Gearhart, Oregon. The spokesman, political consultant Sandeep Kaushik, did not provide a cause of death.

A journalist by training, Royer championed public housing, opposed a police department plagued by misconduct, oversaw the development of the Washington State Convention Center and ran populist campaigns locally that won Royer office three times before he decided to resign. After leaving office, Royer became director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“He was a good man and a change-maker,” said former Mayor Greg Nickels, reflecting on the impact of Royer’s housing tax campaign on his own candidacy. “He always had good advice.”

Royer was born in Medford, Oregon, in 1939 and joined the Army in 1961. After his discharge, he attended the University of Oregon and earned a degree in journalism before embarking on a successful career as a political reporter. In 1970, he landed in Seattle at KING-TV, where he shared a desk with his brother Bob – who would later join his administration at City Hall. As a news analyst at KING, Royer regularly criticized Seattle’s mayoral candidates, many of whom were experienced politicians. He left the station in 1977 and launched his first campaign for office before defeating 13 other candidates.

Until his death, he remained a civic leader, advising local officials, business people, and nonprofit organizations on public policy, community initiatives, and development. He also served as director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Urban Health Initiative, which worked in five U.S. cities to improve children’s health, safety, and educational opportunities.

As Seattle’s 48th mayor, Royer mobilized the city on housing funding votes in 1981 and 1986—perhaps his most influential move as mayor, because those actions created a landmark commitment that the city has renewed since 1990.

“He had never held office before. He needed a little time to find his way and his way of running the city,” said Nickels, who has served two terms as mayor since 2001.

Royer’s administration also worked to move the Seattle Art Museum downtown and divest from the Washington Public Power Supply system. Construction of the downtown bus tunnel began under Royer’s tenure, when he was criticized for the resulting three-year traffic gridlock.

Under Royer’s leadership, Seattle implemented an aggressive recycling and waste reduction program that was recognized as a national model. His administration also worked to open more than 20 health centers in the Seattle area, including health centers in Seattle public schools.

In 1985, Royer founded the Mayor’s Task Force on Lesbians and Gays and later petitioned the City Council for approval to recognize civil partnerships of LGBTQ+ people and to provide people in such partnerships with access to city benefits.

“Charley Royer was a champion for Seattle,” said current Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell on the social media platform X. “As a three-term mayor and lifelong civic leader, he helped Seattle become a national leader in sustainability and led groundbreaking efforts to create more affordable housing. He is part of the fabric of our city and will be greatly missed.”

In a 1989 article, a Seattle Times reporter wrote, “Will the 1980s – which were entirely Royer’s work – be remembered as a boom time when Seattle came of age? Or will a future generation, faced with growth problems, traffic and poor air quality, look back on it as an era when an ill-prepared city government failed to handle a construction boom?”

Jim Street, a member of the Seattle City Council from 1984 to 1995, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at the end of Royer’s term that his greatest qualities as mayor had been his personal warmth, charm and legacy of honest leadership.

Royer is survived by his wife, Lynn Claudon, two children, Suzanne Royer McCone and Jordan Royer, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was predeceased by his brother, Robert “Bob” Royer.

Memorial services will be announced publicly at a later date.