Dec 21, 2020 2 min read

Mayor William Lee of Speers Borough has died.

“He was a very good mayor,” borough council member Richard Daylong said Sunday. “He fought for Speers and did a lot for the borough.”

His passing was reported Saturday morning on the Charleroi Fire Department’s Facebook page.

“Bill was always there when we needed something and he will be missed,” the Facebook post states.

Mr. Lee, a 1963 graduate of Charleroi High School, served on the board of directors for the Mon Valley Alliance, an organization that promotes economic development. According to the alliance’s website, he was retired after 30 years as a sales manager for Lee Supply, a Charleroi-based pipeline component supply company. He was a member of the Charleroi Area School board for eight years and served on Speers Borough Council.

As mayor of Speers, a post he held for two decades, he was one of the Charleroi Regional Police Department’s designated board members, along with his counterparts from Charleroi and North Charleroi boroughs.

In 2011, Mr. Lee was inducted to the California University of Pennsylvania Hall of Fame for his athletic achievements. He was the college football team’s starting quarterback from the end of his 1963 freshman season into 1966.

Biographical information on the university’s website states that as a senior, he passed for 367 yards, then a school record, in a 27-20 home victory over Lock Haven. While in college, he became licensed as a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association football official, and he officiated at games at a variety of age levels for nearly three decades.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in social studies and economics from California in 1967. In 2009, he was inducted into the Solid Waste Association of North America’s “Hall of Flame” for his many years of dedication to the solid waste industry.

Mr. Lee and his wife, Mary Lou, have three grown children, Billy, Michelle Schwerha, and Michael.