Steve Herwat

1954 - 2025

News story
By Mike Sigov
Blade Staff Writer


Stephen J. "Steve" Herwat, a former deputy mayor of Toledo and city plan commission director, died July 12 at his Toledo home. He was 71.

The family did not report the cause of death.

"Steve Herwat was one of the most loyal public servants to Toledo," said former Mayor Mike Bell. "He cared about the city, cared about the people, and he tried to make a difference."

Mr. Herwat retired from the city in 2006 after at least 22 years, most recently as executive director of the Toledo City Plan Commission. Previously, he'd held a variety of jobs including as city engineer, building inspection commissioner, and traffic engineering administrator.

He later returned to work in the city government, as deputy mayor of operations under Mr. Bell, and was deputy mayor during Mr. Bell's term in office, from January, 2010 to January, 2014, when he resigned and retired from the city permanently.

"When you're a mayor, you're just one person, and it takes the whole team to be able to get things done," Mr. Bell said. "And Steve was almost like the captain of the team."

"I was the coach, but he was the captain," he continued. "And he made sure that a lot of the ideas and concepts that we were trying to fulfill actually became completed.

"He had been in multiple [city-government] positions and he had a pretty good understanding of the depth of what we needed to be able to do to become more efficient."

The Bell administration, Mr. Bell noted, had pushed through a balanced budget to address a $48 million general fund deficit. Having Mr. Herwat aboard, he said, helped "fix that deficit and move forward with not having to lay anybody off."

When asked to describe Mr. Herwat as a city employee, former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner used the same word as Mr. Bell.

"He was a very loyal employee to the citizens of the city of Toledo and to the administration for whom he worked," Mr. Finkbeiner said. "Steve, wherever he worked, he put his heart and he put his soul into it."

In retirement, Mr. Herwat was an interim engineering project manager for the city of Perrysburg.

Over the years, he also owned and operated the former Herwat & Associates LLC, a Toledo planning and consulting firm, whose clients included the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments.

He had "a good working knowledge of city government and county government, a lot of expertise as far as how the wheels turn," Jen Sorgenfrei, the then-spokesman for Mr. Bell, told The Blade in 2009.

Born June 6, 1954, in Toledo, Mr. Herwat graduated from Waite High School in 1972 and enrolled in the University of Toledo later in the year.

In 1976, he graduated from UT with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and continued his education, getting a master's degree in public education in 1989 and a law degree in 2001, also from UT.

In 1978, he married the former Joyce Knieriem who survives him.

A baseball enthusiast and an avid Toledo Mud Hens fan, he liked to travel nationwide in his free time, visiting baseball fields.

"He was a baseball - and the Toledo Mud Hens in particular - fanatic," Mr. Finkbeiner said. "And he put his heart and soul into rooting for the Mud Hens."

Mr. Herwat also enjoyed watching hockey games.

Over the years, he followed the former Toledo Goaldiggers and Toledo Storm, and most recently rooted for the Toledo Walleye.

Along with his wife of 47 years, Joyce Herwat, surviving is his sister, Kathryn LaRoche.

Services were held July 23 at Coyle Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to the Toledo Humane Society, St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Graytown, Ohio, or a charity of the donor's choice.