Michael Lynch’s family will remember Monroeville’s ‘first mayor’ as a great father
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Monroeville’s “first mayor” was actually first and foremost a father and a husband.
Michael Lynch served as the first mayor for Monroeville as a Home Rule charter municipality, having succeeded Ronald Droske in 1978, according to the Monroeville Historical Society.
“He wasn’t always around, but he was there for us when he was,” said Kevin Lynch, one of Michael Lynch’s four children.
Lynch died Aug. 26, 2020. He was 81. His is survived by his four children, Kelley, Kevin, Kathleen Hondru and Mike.
Most people in Monroeville will remember him as a caring mayor, one of the original architects of the Home Rule charter. Some will recall that he was the founder of Monroeville’s Safety Town, served on the Parish Council for North American Martyrs Church and was involved in bringing Forbes Hospital to the municipality. In 1989, Lynch was named Monroeville’s Citizen of the Year for his devotion to the community.
He also served as the first chairman of the board of the Local Government Academy, an organization that provides training and educational programs designed for local elected officials and staff. The organization, which he helped found over 20 years ago, developed the Michael P. Lynch Scholarship Fund in August. It provides free or low-cost education to municipality members.
His children will remember his devotion to the family.
Kelley Lynch said her father would come home from work at Churchill’s Westinghouse facility every day to have dinner with the family at 6 p.m. on the dot.
“And usually by 6:45, he’d be heading out the door for meetings – whether it was for council, some committee or whatever,” she said.
The fact that he was home and with family didn’t stop people from calling him to discuss local matters and issues, Kelley said. But he would let it go to the answering machine.
“It was definitely a discipline learned to let (the call) go to the machine. But 6 o’clock was dinner time. Period,” she said.
Kelley, 55, now lives in Scott.
Kevin Lynch, 53, lives in Chicago, serving as a professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern University. He said his father always taught him patience, a skill he uses with his own children and in his career.
Kevin said he would watch council meetings on television when his father served as mayor. At the time, council was sometimes a “difficult cast of characters,” he said.
“I always admired him for the way he kept an even keel,” Kevin said. In fact, he said, his father’s motto was “mend for others.”
“Being a leader is about serving other people. … It’s about helping other people accomplish the things they want to do,” Kevin said.
That mentality didn’t stop with Michael Lynch’s role as mayor. He weaved his mayoral role in with his fatherly role. Mike Lynch, the youngest of the siblings, remembers his father giving speeches at the Old Stone Church for special occasions such as Memorial Day.
“I wrote something on the back of his speech once in crayons. He actually used some of it in his much longer speech,” Mike said, adding he was around 5 years old at the time.
Councilwoman Linda Gaydos spoke warmly of Michael Lynch.
“He did a lot for this community, and he’s a real stand-up guy. I’d like to personally thank him, his family, for what he did for us,” said Gaydos, whose father served on council while Lynch served as mayor. She also remembered benefitting from Monroeville’s Safety Town, a program that teaches traffic safety to children that Lynch founded.
Other council members also expressed their condolences for the Lynch family and thanked them for their sacrifices to community service.
Public service did not stop with Michael Lynch, however. Joan Lynch, his wife, served on council for eight years after her husband’s time as mayor. She also served in leadership positions for the church, school and sports booster groups.
“They were life partners,” Kelley said, adding they worked very well together as a team for 51 years. She passed away in 2016 at age 74.
Kelley said that Michael Lynch missed his wife tremendously after she passed. But he always managed to stay positive — by tending his flower gardens and spending time with his seven grandchildren.
“He just lived for watching them play football, softball, whatever it was. And he would always (video chat) with us. He was very strong. He had a will to live, a fight to live.”