Four Greencastle Mayors to Come Together for Friday Program at DePauw

April 30, 2017

On Friday, May 5, the four individuals who have served as mayors of Greencastle since 1988 will come together at DePauw University to reflect on their experiences as mayors and on their city: past, present, and future.  The four participants -- Mike Harmless (mayor of Greencastle, 1988-96), Nancy Michael (1997-2007), Sue Murray (2008-15), and current mayor Bill Dory, who took office in 2016 -- have headed Greencastle city government for nearly three decades.

The event will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Watson Forum in DePauw’s Pulliam Center of Contemporary Media and is expected to last approximately two hours.   The public is invited to attend.

According to many observers of Greencastle affairs, the shocking November 1986 closure of the IBM parts distribution plant -- the largest local employer -- has shaped the economic, political, and social fortunes of the city ever since.  What followed were significant industrial, commercial, and recreational development on the east side the city, which the four mayors involved in Friday's program have witnessed.

The event will be moderated by Bruce Stinebrickner, professor of political science at DePauw,  who got the idea of getting the four Greencastle mayors together from an event he attended at the University of Indianapolis in 2011.  That forum featured the five Indianapolis mayors who had served since the inception of Unigov in 1970, the city-county consolidation that many observers credit with setting Indianapolis on its upward trajectory over the past 45 years or so. (at left: Dr. Stinebrickner with former president Bill Clinton at DePauw; November 18, 2011)

Dr. Stinebrickner hopes that the “Four Mayors” event at DePauw will be of interest to current Greencastle residents as well as to those studying local history in years to come.

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