Lee Syracuse, 83, most recently served as volunteer on 2 commissions

Lee Syracuse, former city planner popularly known as “Mr. Benicia,” died at home Tuesday at the age of 83.

“Lee was a very kind soul,” said Rod Sherry, who worked with Syracuse as a fellow member and past chairperson of the city Planning Commission.

Local historian Karen Burns called Syracuse “a gentleman’s gentleman.”

His close friend and companion, Al Gomes, said Syracuse was one of the people who transformed the city from being “the armpit of Solano County” to a place “people would be proud to live in.”

At the same time, Gomes said, Syracuse spoke only kind words. “I never heard him speak badly of another,” he said, recalling how Syracuse would advise those who might do otherwise to “leave it alone.”

Friends described him as a New Englander who learned to appreciate historic preservation in that part of the country. Born March 2, 1931, he was a graduate of Yale University who moved to Benicia 42 years ago.

In reading the Jan. 15, 2012, city proclamation commending his public service, Mayor Elizabeth Patterson noted that Syracuse “is considered a pioneer as one of the first city of Benicia planners.”

He was a consulting planner from 1972 to 1977, when he became Benicia’s full-time city planner, a job he had for 15 years, though Burns said some of those years were tough, when his vision for the city he loved wasn’t always shared by others.

He began 15 more years of service to Benicia in 1987 as a member of the Human Services Board, then was appointed Sept. 18, 2007 to the Planning Commission, on which he served until December 2012.

Patterson said she met Syracuse when he was master of ceremonies for the July 3 Torchlight Parade and the July 4 community picnic, but their friendship grew through their common interest in planning.

“We would share ideas,” she said. Through their conversations, she learned about his urban design background that dated to his years at Yale.

She said she was happy to appoint him to the Planning Commission, and Syracuse often told her the commission “was his life.” When he applied for reappointment, he was experiencing health issues. “But how could I say no?” she said. “He was a contributor to the Planning Commission,” and as a result, Benicia has benefited.

Sherry had similar thoughts. “He brought a sense of history to the Planning Commission,” particularly through his historical knowledge and his planning background.

“He was a keeper of the history for the city,” he said.

Sherry commended Syracuse as a forward-thinking planner in the profession’s “bootstrap” days, at a time when Benicia didn’t always have enough money to pay its employees.

Burns said Syracuse and her mother, Gladys Wold, met in 1976, when Wold was trying to preserve old buildings in the Benicia Industrial Park and get them listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“He was the last person in the Planning Department interested in saving Benicia’s history,” she said.

The two also became involved in organizing the Torchlight Parade and the city’s annual July 4 activities, she said.

He also was a writer, Burns said, who had been working for some time on a history of Benicia’s bordellos, she said.

Jon Van Landschoot said Syracuse also was describing 10-foot-by-10-foot structures with planks out into the water, all built on pilings off the south portions of First Street so they technically weren’t “in” Benicia.

Syracuse gave a lecture on the subject at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. Van Landschoot and his wife, author Donnell Rubay, went to Syracuse’s talk and found the building packed.

In the audience were older residents who nodded and spoke their assent to Syracuse’s description of Benicia’s wilder days, when women of the old profession would contribute some of their earnings to pay for city resources because the municipality had no other source of funds.

“It was fun,” Van Landschoot said. “He was an acknowledged chronicler of prostitution in Benicia in the mid-century.”

Syracuse never used a computer to write his long-hoped-for history of those days, Burns said. While he would use a typewriter, in this case he had been composing his book longhand. He kept promising those who knew about his book that he needed just one more month to complete it, but “I know it wasn’t finished,” she said.

She, too, remarked about his kindness. When they would meet, he would ask, “How is Mother?” referring to Wold.

Burns said, “He had a beautiful singing voice,” something that Joel Fallon, a neighbor and the city’s first poet laureate, also remembered.

Fallon was with Syracuse on Tuesday afternoon, holding his hand and singing “The First Noel,” a song the two had performed together.

Though the two spent some good times together through the years, Fallon said, he also recalled rushing Syracuse to San Francisco to undergo a long-awaited liver transplant.

Van Landschoot said Syracuse and a circle of friends would meet at the former Pappas Restaurant for breakfast. The group became known as the “Benicia Round Table,” patterned after the Algonquin Round Table that met at Syracuse’s alma mater.

Afterward, Syracuse would feed some of the leftovers to his dog, Daisy.

“He could quip on anything,” Fallon said. Syracuse often would tell jokes, but then add “a Henny Youngman one-liner.” sometimes with a double-entendre twist, to the original joke.

Others, too, had praise for Syracuse, both personally and professionally.

Councilmember Tom Campbell said, “I knew him for many years and he was fun to be around.

“Lee was always a humble guy. You’d never know he was a Yale graduate and generally the smartest one in the room at any given time,” he said. “He did a lot of good things with his life.”

Vice Mayor Mark Hughes said, “I met Lee many years ago, but got to know him better when I was first elected to the City Council in 2005.”

He said Syracuse “contributed a great deal to the city of Benicia,” both as an employee and as a member of the two advisory panels. Others noted how Syracuse always acknowledged the work of city staff, suggesting that approach probably dated from his own experience as a city employee.

“His institutional knowledge was invaluable to both city staff and the commissions he served,” Hughes said. “But more than anything else, Lee was a true gentleman. He cared deeply about our town, and he will truly be missed.”

“I am sorry to hear about the death of Lee Syracuse,” Councilmember Christina Strawbridge said. “He was a delightful gentleman who loved Benicia.”

She recalled his work as the emcee of the Torchlight Parade: “He knew everybody in town and while describing a float or local band, his little anecdotes were both endearing and spot-on.”

She called Syracuse “an ambassador to our city because of his knowledge and passion of Benicia history,” and added, “When I first got involved with the downtown and Benicia Main Street many years ago, it was Lee who set the example of an involved citizen for me and the rest of the community. His quiet activism will be missed.”

Syracuse’s funeral will take place at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, 475 East I St., said John Passalacqua.

Prior to that, visitation is at Passalacqua Funeral Chapel, 901 West Second St., after 2 p.m Monday; a vigil service will start at 7 p.m. Monday.