(April 25, 1928 – August 18, 2011)
Early life
Pfuhl was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1928 to German immigrant parents who had moved to the United States during the 1920s.[5] Pfuhl's father, Herbert L. Pfuhl, moved to Johnstown from Berlin, Germany.[5] His mother, Anna Schweitzer, moved to Johnstown from a rural region of Germany when she was 16 years old.[5] She worked as a maid for a Johnstown family, the Suppes.[5] Anna Schweitzer was also a relative of Albert Schweitzer, a prominent physician and theologian.[5] Both became students at Johnstown High School, where they learned English. The couple met while both were attending the Zion Lutheran Church and soon married.[5]Pfuhl remained a resident of Johnstown for his entire life, eventually settling in the Roxbury neighborhood of the city.[5] He grew up in a home with coal stoves heating the room.[5] Pfuhl enlisted in United States Navy during World War II.[6][4] He graduated from Johnstown High School in 1946.[6][4] He then earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh.[6] Pfuhl was a Presbyterian.[7] He worked in public education before entering politics. He was a teacher and coach in the Ferndale Area School District in Cambria County, Pennsylvania.[4] Pfuhl also served in the Pennsylvania National Guard.[4]
Mayor of Johnstown
Pfuhl would serve six terms as Mayor of Johnstown, the longest tenure of any chief executive in city history.[4] He helped guide Johnstown's transition from a commission government to a local government consisting of a strong mayor and city council.[4] He helped move Johnstown to its present system of governing based on a city manager.[4]Pfuhl ran for Mayor of Johnstown during six mayoral elections, winning five of the six campaigns.[1] He was elected as a Republican, despite Johnstown's reputation as a stronghold of the Democratic Party.[1] Pfuhl was elected to his first term as mayor in the 1971 election.[3]
Pfuhl was mayor of Johnstown during the July 1977 flood, which devastated the city and the local economy.[8] The flood heavily damaged the facities of Bethlehem Steel, which was Johnstown's major employer at the time, with 12,000 employees in during pre-flood 1977.[8] Bethlehem Steel lost more than $50 million dollars in the flood, resulting in 4,000 layoffs.[8]
Pfuhl accused Bethlehem Steel of using the flood as an excuse to pull some of its investments from the area.[8] The business district was heavily flooded, closing both of the city's department stores, Penn Traffic and Grosser Bros.[8] Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp gave Pfuhl a hand-written letter after the flood, authorizing Pfuhl to wave the usual regulations and solicitation process for the clean-up. [9]
Pfuhl lost his re-election bid in 1977 to Democrat Charles "Kutch" Tomljanovic, largely due to the aftermath of the 1977 Johnstown flood, which proved one of the biggest challenges of his political career.[3][10]
Pfuhl remained out of office for just one term before being re-elected as mayor in the 1981 election and re-took the mayor's office in 1982.[3] In October 1986, Pfuhl appointed Linda Weaver as Johnstown's police chief.[11] The appointment made Weaver the first female police chief in Pennsylvania.[11] She retired on March 5, 1993.[11]
Pfuhl announced his retirement in February 1993, when he announced that he would not seek re-election in the November 1993 mayoral election.[4] In his announcement, Pfuhl told the audience, "I love my family, I love my city, I love this job. And I really feel I’ve been pretty good at it."[4]
Pfuhl died at Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on August 19, 2011, aged 83.[1][6] He was survived by his wife of 64 years, the former Phyllis I. Meyer, and five children.[4] He was buried at Grandview Cemetery at the mausoleum in Southmont, Pennsylvania.[7]
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