Bill Cassella, former executive director of the National Civic League (formerly the National Municipal League) died September 6, 2015, at the age of 95 at his home on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Bill was born July 14, 1920, in Alton, Illinois. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois before earning his first master’s degree from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Administration. Legend has it that despite his thirst for knowledge, he fell asleep one day in the Maxwell library and awoke suddenly to a “hot foot”—a lit match lodged into the sole of one of his shoes by a classmate. A young woman who was laughing hardest at the prank, Margaret (Peg) Powers Crowley, would eventually become his wife.

Bill’s interest in further education was interrupted during World War II, when he served in the U.S. Navy and was stationed at the Marshall Islands. He continued in the Naval Reserves for 20 years, retiring as a captain.

Upon his return to the states in 1946, Bill and Peg married and moved to Boston, where he earned his second master’s degree, along with a Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard University. Following graduation, he taught public administration at the University of Missouri and later at Columbia University.

His developing expertise in politics and state and local government led to an interim job at the prestigious National Municipal League, a nonprofit headquartered in New York City. The short-term contract he had at the time ultimately lasted 31 years, until Bill retired after 15 years as its executive director.

Key Programs Flourish Under His Leadership

Under Bill’s leadership, the League’s two major programs, the All-America Cities competition and the Model City Charter program, flourished. The former began in 1949, and, continuing today, salutes local governments that have undertaken particularly exemplary projects and initiatives, with specific attention given to citizen participation.

Through the years, U.S. presidents, including Ronald Reagan, honored the All-America Cities program by hosting White House garden ceremonies where mayors of the winning communities were recognized and presented with award plaques.

The Model City Charter dates back even further to the establishment of the National Municipal League in 1894. Determined to overcome the widespread corruption in many of the nation’s cities in the late 1800s, reformers, led by Theodore Roosevelt, met in 1897 and launched a civic reform program that included the publication of the first Model City Charter in 1900.

The 1915 edition endorsed the then new council-manager plan of local government. As assistant executive director and later the chief executive of the League, Cassella was influential in later editions endorsing the direct election of the mayor and presenting, as an alternative, the election of councilmembers by district as opposed to the original concept of election at-large.

Beginning in the mid-1900s, Cassella was deeply involved in subsequent editions of the model, including two editions of the model county charter and a unique charter-like document for counties, which could not have charters.

After his retirement as executive director in 1985, he served as coordinator of the charter’s seventh edition in 1989.

The Charter is now in its 8th edition, which was published in 2011. The current model continues to be widely used by cities across the country looking to adopt their first charter or to rewrite an existing document.

ICMA Pays Tribute

The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) paid tribute to Cassella at its annual conference in late September 2015, in Seattle, Washington. Speaking at the business meeting, University of North Carolina Visiting Professor Dr. James Svara, who is generally considered the foremost expert on local government structure in the United States today, paid tribute to Cassella’s decades-long leadership in local government reform and his efforts to keep city charters relevant and abreast of the changing environment.

After marriage, Bill and Peg settled in Westchester County, New York, and raised four sons, John, Stephen, Mark, and Kent. During these years, Bill not only researched and wrote about local government, but he also served on the Greenburgh, New York, school board, as chairman of the Westchester Planning Board for many years, and on the vestry of Zion Episcopal Church.

Many years, the family vacation consisted of visiting state capitols and his sons remember that eventually, their dad had photographed every state capitol in the country. I remember his pride on showing me those photographs at his home.  He took particular pride in pointing out that he had extended his hobby to include foreign capitols and was pleased that he was able to photograph the renovated Reichstag building in Berlin before his travels were curtailed.

Bill continued his civic work long after his retirement, consulting for local government associations in China, Poland, and Japan. He was a key leader in the Westchester Croton Aqueduct project, preserving an historic greenbelt for his community. He retired early to be a full-time caregiver for Peg in the final two years of her life.

Still later, he moved to Bainbridge Island to be near his son, Steve. He participated in numerous events in his retirement community, up to the final days of his life.

He is survived by John and Claire Cassella, Mark and Lisa Cassella, Stephen and Carol Cassella, William Kent Cassella, nine grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. I confess to having “lifted” a fair amount of material here directly from a loving obituary written by daughter-in-law Carol, a noted novelist.

Memorial services were held December 28 on Bainbridge Island. The family suggests that donations made in his name be directed to your local Public Broadcasting Service station.

This obituary has been prepared by Terrell Blodgett who was chairman of the National Civic League, 1986 to 1987. Now retired and an ICMA Life Member, he is a former city manager. He also is Mike Hogg Professor Emeritus in Urban Management at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas-Austin (blodgett@utexas.edu).