Former Ogdensburg Mayor Richard Lockwood passes away at 85

Jan. 12—OGDENSBURG — The longest tenured mayor in Ogdensburg's history has passed away.

Richard "Dick" G. Lockwood died Thursday at the age of 85. Funeral arrangements are with Frary Funeral Home, Ogdensburg.

"On behalf of the city, I offer our condolences to Dick's family, and we join them in mourning his loss while honoring his contributions to our Maple City," Mayor Michael J. Tooley said in a statement Friday.

Ogdensburg's 42nd mayor, Lockwood replaced Joseph P. Denny in 1980. Lockwood was elected to serve five times as mayor and was at City Hall until 1999.

He was followed by William D. Nelson, who served a term on City Council prior to being elected mayor. He remembers Lockwood as an open-minded individual who respected every councilor's viewpoint, despite have different political beliefs than him. Nelson is a Republican while Lockwood was a Democrat.

"He ran a good meeting. He respected everyone's viewpoint, even if it was differing from his," said Nelson, "He was a pleasure and it was an honor to have served with him truly. I learned a lot from him, watched how he conducted himself in the meetings."

Nelson said that when attended his first New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) meeting, Lockwood was the president and he was impressed with the way he conducted his business.

"I used to go to all of the NYCOM meetings when he was president. Dick was very well respected and well liked and well known around New York state as mayor but also as president of NYCOM," said Nelson, "I got to know a lot of people across the state as a councilor when Dick was the mayor, he helped get Ogdensburg's name out there."

With Nelson as mayor, he led the charge to name the city's civic center at 141 West River St., opened in 2001, after Lockwood.

"Even though we didn't agree politically on everything, I had a tremendous amount of respect for Dick and I felt that after 20 years of service to our community, he deserved to have his name mentioned, his name inscribed permanently on something. He was a big proponent of the arena so I brought it forward to council," said Nelson.

In a 1999 Times article discussing his decision to not run for re-election, Lockwood looked back on his 20 years as mayor and noted that his accomplishments included the founding of the city's Growth Fund Development Corp. in 1983, which provides loans to start businesses, the growth of Commerce Park, as well as the advancement of recreational facilities and opportunities such as the beginning of the building of the civic center, the Elsa M. Luksich Municipal Pool, the city's Maple City Trail and improvements made to the Greenbelt Park.

He was also an advocate for municipal power, an idea that never took hold in Ogdensburg.

During his tenure, two medium security prisons in Riverview and Ogdensburg correctional facilities were built, which he had described as a "stop-gap" economic aid. "I don't want to be remembered as the mayor who brought two prisons to Ogdensburg," Lockwood had said in the article. "It was important. You wouldn't want to make a habit of bringing prisons in, but it is a depression-proof job. They aren't going to close those down because of lack of business." He said that he was satisfied with his tenure and that there is nothing he wished he had done that has not been done.

"It's not that I don't still enjoy doing it, because I do," he was quoted as saying. "One should always leave what they're doing while they're still enjoying it."

Lockwood was being modest with his accomplishments, according to St. Lawrence County Legislator James E. Reagen, who was the managing editor of The Journal and Advance News for 30 years. He said that Ogdensburg owes Lockwood, along with his "coalition" of Republicans and Democrats, a debt of gratitude when they took office in 1980.

"During his 19 year career as mayor of Ogdensburg, he set a tone for civility and bipartisanship that our community needs to remember. Mayor Lockwood came into office as part of a reform movement after city residents grasped the consequences of the poorly thought out destruction of our downtown by previous administrations whose mismanagement of Urban Renewal had left our community struggling for the next 40 plus years," said Reagen, "Mayor Lockwood understood that the mismanagement and senseless destruction of downtown was a direct result of having no professional management in city hall which allowed part-time amateurs to leave our city a shadow of itself."

Reagen said that Lockwood understood the value of the city manager form of government, how important a city planner could be to bring grant funding to the community, that the city's aging housing stock could be aided by state and federal funds to make them better and safe as well as fighting to preserve jobs at the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center.

"Throughout his career, he always managed to represent what was best about Ogdensburg, welcoming people to city council meetings with a degree of friendliness and respect even when they sharply disagreed with him," said Reagen. "Our community owes him a great debt of gratitude and I was proud to call him a friend."

In 1999, Lockwood was named the Greater Ogdensburg Chamber of Commerce's Citizen of the Year.

"If you stay around long enough sooner or later they are going to have to honor you," he joked in a news article.

Douglas Loffler was the city's recreation director for 17 years of Lockwood's tenure as mayor, as well as serving two terms on City Council. He called the man "one of kind" and someone who devoted himself to the community.

"Dick Lockwood was that. He was one of a kind. He was probably the best mayor we have ever had in the city of Ogdensburg," said Loffler, "People were drawn to him because of his passion for this community."

One of the things that Loffler will remember about the former mayor is that he was respectful of your opinion, even if he disagreed.

"When I worked side by side with him as the mayor, he really respected your opinions and there were many times when he and I would go nose-to-nose, but when it was all said and done, when you left those council chambers, you were still friends and you were still working for the good of the people in this community."

Another was his philosophy on city government, which Loffler called "simple."

"Every person deserves the highest quality of city services," stated Loffler.

Lockwood was a staunch supporter of the recreation department, according to Loffler, and through his leadership made the city's programs "second to none."

Douglas McDonald became the city planner in 1984. His time with the city and his experiences with Lockwood led to a lifelong friendship not only with the former mayor, but others that worked at City Hall.

Lockwood would join other former city employees in what was coined the "Lunch Bunch" for 20 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to McDonald. Others joining them were Kathy Wears, retired city attorney; John Krol, former city planner and city manager; and Phil Cosmo, retired comptroller.

In fact, it was at lunch Thursday when McDonald and the others heard the news of Lockwood's passing.

"It was kind of a shock," said McDonald, "He was just a great guy as a mayor. He always cared about his staff," said McDonald, "We were a pretty close group in the 1980s. We were younger, of course. We were all committed to making the city a better place. We were still in pretty much of the recovery phase from Urban Renewal."

Lockwood worked for 35 years in the Ogdensburg City School District before retiring in 1995.

He was an elementary school teacher for 24 years before becoming an elementary school principal in 1984. He later became Ogdensburg Free Academy's middle school principal.

As a seventh- and eighth-grader at OFA, Superintendent Kevin Kendall remembers Lockwood as a "nice" and "respectful" administrator.

"He just had a presence about him, he was just so nice, so genuine. He really understood adolescence," said Kendall, "He was just a nice man."

Mayor Tooley said that Lockwood was his seventh-grade teacher at Kennedy Elementary School who later introduced him to city government by selecting him for the City Charter Commission in 1995.

"I was thrilled that Dick felt I could contribute to that commission," said Tooley.

Lockwood is survived by his wife, Sylvia. They had seven children.