William Donald Schaefer has been largely invisible in Annapolis since he left office in January, skipping the inaugurations of Gov. Martin O?Malley and his successor as comptroller, Peter Franchot.
But Schaefer ? the former Baltimore City Council member, mayor and governor ? returned Wednesday to accept an award from the Maryland Senate and offer kind words to O?Malley.
“You?ve got a nice young governor that I used to fight with all the time,” Schaefer said at the Senate rostrum, with the governor sitting before him.
Schaefer told O?Malley he was supposed to laugh at the remark. O?Malley laughed.
O?Malley in turn referred to Schaefer as “my friend, my mentor, sometimes my tormentor,” and praised his 50 years of public service renewing Baltimore?s skyline and its spirit.
“He felt firmly and sincerely whatever it was that he felt,” O?Malley said.
O?Malley also was there to honor his father-in-law, former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, who began his political career only two years after Schaefer did. Curran served as a delegate, senator and lieutenant governor.
Both men were honored with the First Citizen award, an award first given in 1992 and named after the pseudonym used by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and former Senate president.
