St. Petersburg Community Icon Don McRae Dies

Don McRae, one of the most formidable black leaders in St. Petersburg history - and sometimes one of its most controversial - died Sunday after a long illness. He was 78.

McRae found himself in the middle of a historical maelstrom in 1992 when, as interim city manager, he fired popular Police Chief Ernest Curtsinger amid allegations Curtsinger was racially insensitive and a poor manager.

The move brought into sharp relief some of the racial divisions in the city that many felt had been simmering just below the surface for months.

McRae had been appointed as interim city manager after then-City Manager Robert Obering was toppled by a real estate scandal. McRae was one of Obering's three assistants. At the time, city council members hoped McRae's steady, low-profile character would keep the city on an even keel until a replacement could be found.

Instead, McRae soon was embroiled in Curtsinger's growing troubles with the city's black community.

McRae's position trying to mediate Curtsinger's disputes with black employees was made even more difficult by the fact that the police department's highest ranking black, and Curtsinger's most outspoken critic on the force, was Assistant Chief Goliath Davis III, McRae's protégé.

But Davis said it wasn't fair for that one decision to eclipse everything else McRae had done for the community.

"To focus on that narrow of an aspect doesn't do anything for the man," said Davis, who is now a deputy mayor. "He always acted in terms of what was in the interest of the community and the city."

"I don't think tough decisions were ever difficult for him," Davis said. "It was just that he never sought the spotlight ....He didn't do anything for fame and fortune in that respect."

After Curtsinger's ouster, the city council voted to give Curtsinger $585,000 to settle a dispute over his firing, and he was given a job as director of the city's port and airport, which he then resigned before running for mayor.

But Curtsinger was defeated in March 1993 by incumbent Mayor Dave Fischer, who named McRae chief of staff. Voters also approved a change in the form of government, from city manager to strong mayor. But racial tension in the city continued to exist.

Riots broke out in 1996 after a white police officer shot a black teenager. Police Chief Darrel Stephens lost his job in a reshuffling of the top leadership at City Hall but was named city administrator. Davis, still an assistant police chief, was named the city's first black police chief.

McRae had been drafted into the Army as a young man. He rose through the ranks and served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam before retiring in 1972 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He then returned to St. Petersburg and took a job with the city, working as a civilian police employee and helicopter pilot before rising steadily to the position of assistant city manager, where he oversaw the police department for six years before he was named interim city manager.

"This man was an icon in the community," Davis said. "He paved the way for many of us."

McRae is survived by his wife, Josephine.