Longest-serving Dayton commissioner dies

Dean Lovelace, the longest-serving Dayton City Commissioner, died this morning.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley confirmed that Lovelace has died.

“My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends,” she said. “His legacy will always be here, not only locally but nationally, his efforts fighting for the economically disadvantaged in our community.

“It was an honor serving with him as mayor and city commissioner,” Whaley said.

He left the commission Jan. 3, 2016, for health reasons after finishing his sixth term. His political career spanned more than two decades, and in the 1980s he ran the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in Dayton.

RELATED: Lovelace announces final term

Lovelace, who was in his early 70s, was known as a firebrand committed to serving the most needy and vulnerable residents in the city, friends and peers said.

RELATED: Lovelace leaves office as city's longest-serving commissioner

Former Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin said Lovelace would take up issues no one else would, such as predatory lending, earned tax income, about holding banks accountable, and he also was instrumental in the dialogue about race in the city, she said.

“It is such a loss to the community. Dean Lovelace was such a fighter even through his illnesses,” she said. “He believed in what he believed and he acted on it, but he never forgot the little people.”

In addition to his 22 years on the commission, Lovelace retired in 2009 after a 25-year career at the University of Dayton, where he was director of the Dayton Civic Scholars program.

Funeral plans have not been announced.

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