Former Charleston mayor made most of his brief term in office

Schirmer

Former Charleston Mayor Arthur Bonnell Schirmer Jr., a member of Charleston City Council for 14 years before he served as mayor in 1975, died Friday.

Schirmer was mayor for just four months, between the resignation of Mayor J. Palmer Gaillard and the swearing-in of Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., but he was an active mayor who did not want to been seen as a temporary caretaker.

"When my accomplishments are considered, people will realize that I have been anything but an interim mayor," Schirmer told a reporter with the former Evening Post, just days before leaving office.

During his brief tenure, Schirmer directed the city to begin sharing its swimming pools with the school district, and he also worked on negotiating the sale of the municipal airport.

He advocated annexing all of the James Island Public Service District and urged James Island residents before the 1975 election to vote against forming a new town.

Schirmer got what he wanted when James Island voters rejected incorporation during his final days in office, although in the years that followed a town was incorporated on James Island.

Schirmer was sworn in as mayor Aug. 19, 1975, after Gaillard stepped down to accept an appointment as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy (Reserve Affairs), and City Council voted for Schirmer to take over. Schirmer passed the gavel to Riley on Dec. 15 of that same year, and then returned to managing his landscaping and paving companies, and limestone quarry.

"He was not a caretaker, even though he was mayor for a short period of time," Riley said Friday. "He had been on City Council, and when he became mayor was quite active in some construction projects.

"After I was elected, he was always somebody that I could call," Riley said. "He was really a fine man."

Riley said Schirmer was active in sports, particularly tennis, and said he will propose naming city tennis courts in Schirmer's honor at Bees Landing Recreation Center, a facility under construction in the Grand Oaks community in West Ashley.

Schirmer, 75, grew up on Bull Street in downtown Charleston and in recent years lived on Sullivan's Island.

But during his time in office he lived west of the Ashley, making him Charleston's only mayor from West Ash-ley.

He was the husband of Jacquelyn Bull Schirmer, and the retired president of Landscape Pavers Ltd.

Visitation will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the J. Henry Stuhrs Inc. Downtown Chapel, 232 Calhoun St.

Services will be at St. John's Lutheran Church, Clifford and Archdale streets, at 11 a.m. Monday. Burial will be in Magnolia Cemetery.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.