Longtime City Councilman Shultz dies

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert city officials were saddened Tuesday to hear of the death of longtime Van Wert City Council member Richard R. “Dick” Shultz.

The 20-year City Council veteran and retired CPA succumbed on Tuesday after an approximately month-long illness. He was 77.

Council President Gary Corcoran called Shultz the “elder statesman” of Council, noting that his colleague’s professionalism and ability to relate to newer people on Council provided stability and some needed mentoring to new members.

“You could always look to Dick for a cool and steady hand,” Corcoran said, adding, “He maintained his composure and his professionalism and didn’t allow himself and his colleagues to become too embroiled in the emotions of an issue, but instead maintained a very even keel and an ability to look at both sides of an issue. I think his stabilizing influence on Council will be missed.”

Corcoran also called Shultz a gentleman in an era where good manners are not always as common as they were a few decades ago.

“Dick would thank his fellow council people and members of the administration for the work they did, whether he was on their side or not,” the council president noted. “He was always appreciative and politically astute enough to maintain a relationship with individuals.”

Corcoran said he felt “compromise and collaboration” characterized Shultz’s philosophy on Council, in addition to the professional ability and knowledge in the financial area he displayed during his longtime chairmanship of Council’s Finance Committee.

Former mayor Louis Ehmer said Shultz was not only a political colleague but a former neighbor as well, and noted he would miss him.

“He was a very thorough man, very methodical and confident in his abilities,” Ehmer said. “He was a wise man to listen to.”

City Auditor Martha Balyeat was also very complimentary of Shultz’s role as mentor to her, as well as his contribution to city government as chairman of the Finance Committee. Shultz, a CPA, was a longtime partner in what is now Shultz & Huber Associates CPA firm in Van Wert.

“He had been a tremendous help to me as auditor and I appreciated his guidance and leadership many, many times,” Balyeat said. “He was very knowledgeable and supportive of my ideas on fiscal responsibility. Besides that, he was just a plain nice man.”

Current Mayor Don Farmer also had compliments for a man with which he served on Council for several years.

“A vacuum is left in our community,” Farmer said, noting that, in addition to his two decades on City Council, Shultz’s volunteerism and involvement in the community as a whole will also be hard to replace.

“Dick was always a hard worker and always had input to what could be done to better Van Wert,” the mayor added. “Cooperation from Dick was always 100 percent.”

Shultz, whose last City Council meeting was December 12, was honored at the December 28 meeting with a plaque noting his long service to the city.

Funeral arrangements for Shultz, who died surrounded by his family, were incomplete Tuesday at Alspach-Gearhart Funeral Home & Crematory in Van Wert.