Hard driving, dedicated, sensitive, funloving: Rochester
Deputy Mayor Jeff Carlson was, as Mayor Bill Johnson puts it, “a very
interesting mixture.” And Carlson, who died last week at the age of 57, left
his mark on the city, his friends and co-workers, and the family he cared
passionately about.
The renovation of the Blue Cross Arena, the development of
the High Falls area, the Public Safety Building, the fast ferry: “There are so
many things in this city that bear his stamp,” Johnson said late last week,
“even though there’s not anything with a plaque with his name on it.”
Carlson didn’t mind not getting credit on a project, said
Johnson. He simply enjoyed getting things done. Although the Blue Cross Arena
was “a very tough job, he relished that kind of detail,” said Johnson. “Stuff
that would overwhelm the average person, he relished.”
Johnson’s long association with Carlson began when Johnson
was head of the Rochester Urban League. Carlson, whose college work had been in
English literature, was working as a community organizer in a poor
neighborhood. Johnson’s deputy persuaded Carlson to move to the Urban League.
“What you soon found out about him,” said Johnson, “was that he had a very keen
sense of social justice. He poured his heart out to make things better.”
When Johnson appointed Carlson deputy director of the Urban
League, “I got severely criticized by so-called leaders in the black-community,
who wanted to know why I would have a white man in this position. I said:
Because it’s the right thing to do. I know where his mind is.”
As the Urban League became involved in developing affordable
housing, “that was his baby,” said Johnson. “He took the Urban League’s
Development Corporation and ran it autonomously.”
And when Johnson ran for Rochester mayor and won, Johnson
wanted Carlson to go with him to City Hall. “He made it clear that he wanted
all the development responsibility,” said Johnson. “His whole notion was to get
things done.”
“He really relished the fast ferry,” said Johnson, a project
that Carlson had been working on for the city since the beginning and one that
carried “immense joy and heartache.”
But the hard-driving deal-maker deputy mayor was just one
side of Carlson. “He obviously was a fun-loving guy,” said Johnson. “He had a
raucous laugh. He worked hard during the day, but he knew how to let it go.
Jeff loved to go out, loved to drink his beer, go out on a golf course, go to
the Bills games — and he was like a different person.”
Despite Carlson’s death at a relatively young age, “nobody
could say that he got cheated out of life,” said Johnson.
“One side of Jeff that has to be pointed out,” added
Johnson, “is his sensitivity. He was an extremely sensitive and caring person,
and it is reflected in the time he spent with his own children and his
grandson.”
Carlson, said Johnson, “was just a great dad.”
Funeral services for Carlson were held on Saturday at Aenon
Baptist Church on Genesee Street. “It’s very poignant that Pat [Carlson’s wife
Patricia Gallagher] chose Aenon Church for his service,” said Johnson. “This was
the community he worked in.”
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2005.
