'Beloved' Longtime Sterling Heights Mayor Richard Notte Dies At 76
STERLING HEIGHTS (WWJ) - Longtime Sterling Heights Mayor Richard Notte has died at age 76.
His friends and coworkers say Notte could light up a room and lived to serve his city.
Always seen wearing his trademark fedora, Notte was mayor for 22 years, taking leave in August due to pancreatic cancer.
According to Acting Mayor Michael Taylor, Notte died at his home Tuesday mornin, and is already missed.
"It's a terribly sad day for everyone in Sterling Heights. He was beloved by just about every single resident I ever talked to, and there's a lot of us in Sterling Heights mourning today," Taylor said. "He's going to be very difficult to replace. I mean, he was a giant, really — an icon in Sterling Heights."
Taylor told WWJ's Laura Bonnell he has many fond memories.
"The speech he gave at the Chrysler Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in front of the CEO and in front of Governor Granholm when he just brought the house down...He really had the pulse of 130,000 residents," Taylor said.
The city will rename the municipal center the Richard J. Notte Sterling Heights city centre.
In neighboring Warren, Mayor Jim Fouts announced the flag at Warren City Hall would be lowered to half staff in honor of Notte.
Posting on his Facebook page, Fouts described Notte as a nice guy who always finished first.
"He was a genuine person who cared about others and was always a very upbeat positive person, Fouts wrote, in part. "I never once heard Mayor Notte say a disparaging thing about anyone even those who were not kind to him.
"He was above all else a down to earth person. He liked people and people liked him. He was the first and only elected Mayor of Sterling Heights. He was a most humble mayor. For the most part it was about others never about himself."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
"It's going to take a long time to heal from this," said Taylor, "but we have a strong city council, and we have a strong administration and under his leadership we really have developed into what I think is one of the premier cities in the state of Michigan."
