For DeFore, it was always about helping people

When Ed DeFore decided to run for Macon City Council in 1971, his wife, Pat, never imagined that he would become one of city’s most well-known politicians over a career that’s spanned decades.

Throughout his political career, DeFore fashioned himself as someone who looked out for those that were most in need. In the early 1990s, DeFore campaigned as the “tax cutter” and “your tax fighter,” which was similar to his stance during his first campaign when he promised to help get rid of a newly implemented garbage tax.

In his first term, DeFore would help lead the effort to eliminate the garbage tax and help pave numerous dirt roads across the city. Those two accomplishments marked the beginning of his lengthy career on Poplar Street.

“I did not know it was going to become a career,” said Pat, who will celebrate her 66th wedding anniversary with DeFore in September. “Now, I will say maybe in his first years there was some controversial things I wasn’t pleased with, but they always worked out.

“He really has considered himself not as a politician but as a public servant, and I agree with him.”

DeFore’s push to eliminate the garbage tax came from his belief that like fire and police protection, garbage was another service people should not have to pay a separate fee for. DeFore was also a rarity in Georgia as he held two elected positions at the same time, serving on City Council and, for 13 years, on Bibb County school board as well.

“I might have made a mistake, but I’ve never lied to my friends and constituents,” DeFore said Wednesday afternoon inside his west Macon home. “I was bringing up issues and telling them to think about the people who sent us down there, let’s look out for them. I said just treat the people right. I’m down there for one reason: to treat people right.”

At the end of December, DeFore’s terms on the Macon-Bibb County Commission and Macon Water Authority will come to an end. He lost his District 6 commission seat in a runoff Tuesday to former Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen.

DeFore said he was not disappointed in the election results.

“I was concerned,” he said. “I knew it was going to be a close race because Joe and I have always been concerned about the kids and about the general public. Joe will do a good job. I may not ever run again because of my age (84). I’m in good health, excellent health. Right now my wife and I are enjoying our family and grandchildren.”

DeFore’s concern for children led him to become an ardent supporter of recreation. Part of that stemmed from DeFore’s past as a star baseball and basketball athlete at Lanier High School, eventually playing with the St. Louis Cardinals farm league system.

His son, Ed DeFore Jr., would also become a standout in baseball and was drafted by the New York Mets in 1971.

DeFore said his mindset was simple: “I said ‘I’m going to do what I can one day for the kids.’” DeFore, who was elected to the Macon Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, also was presented an award from the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame for his civic leadership, including his role in coaching youth baseball and helping with construction projects in various parks across Macon.

“My desire was to help the boys and girls, not only baseball or basketball but to have recreation facilities in-house,” he said. “I wanted them to have a place to go to when there was inclement weather.”

DeFore’s desire to fight for residents was again evident in 1985 when he pushed for a federal investigation into flooding in the Village Green and Vinson Village subdivisions. The councilman pushed for the city to use federal grant money to improve the draining systems in the neighborhoods.

A couple of years earlier, the governor appointed DeFore to a council that oversaw job training. That group of community leaders was challenged with helping remove barriers facing the young, elderly, disabled and economically disadvantaged.

Going back decades, DeFore also was involved in discussions about the consolidation of Macon and Bibb County. In 1985, he introduced a resolution asking for the Macon City Council to take a stand either in support or against the proposed merger.

About 30 years later, DeFore was elected to the first Macon-Bibb County Commission. He said it was important for residents in what was then the Macon city limits as well as in unincorporated Bibb County to make their own determination for consolidation. Having a combined government has proven to be better financially, and leaders are moving the city-county in the right direction, DeFore said.

“I know (elected officials) have to make decisions, but something of that magnitude I felt like it should be left up to individual voters,” he said.

While he has five months remaining in his tenure as an elected official, DeFore said he will continue to help residents if they call on him for advice.

“I can give them the answer to the questions on where to go and what to do, and I’d be glad to do that,” he said.

For Allen, also a political veteran, it wasn’t a typical election since his relationship with DeFore dates back many years. That includes working together setting up youth baseball in west Macon and DeFore’s becoming one of the first board members for Allen’s charity, Kids Yule Love, founded in 1986.

“Ed DeFore is a fine man and has been a friend of mine for a number of years,” Allen said.

Although DeFore’s political career may be drawing to a close, what’s made him successful in and out of the political arena remains the same, his wife said.

“He loves people,” Pat said. “He has an outgoing personality and has been a good husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.”

This story was originally published July 27, 2016 at 6:41 PM with the headline "For DeFore, it was always about helping people."