Richard S Caliguri Statute

at City County Building Pittsburgh



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About Richard S Caliguiri and the statue
Richard S. Caliguiri served as the mayor of Pittsubrgh, Pennsylvania from 1977 until his death in 1988. Under Caliguiri's leadership, Pittsburgh began its "Renaissance II" plan, an urban renewal and revitalization plan based on the “Renaissance” plan of former mayor and governor David L. Lawrence. The plan was generally considered a success but was hampered by a sharp and permanent downturn in the city's economy and resulting diaspora. By the end of Caliguiri's time in office, not a single major steel mill operated in a city once known as the "Steel City", and the city that once boasted more Fortune 500 corporate headquarters save for New York and Chicago, had less than ten. It is a tribute to mayor Caliguiri that he was able to accomplish as much as he did in the face of national and global trends minimizing the industries Pittsburgh had so long depended on.

In the late 1980s, Caliguiri was diagnosed with amylodosis, a rare and serious protein disorder. Curiously, within a few years in the mid to late 1980s, three of Pennsylvania's most prominent political leaders were afflicted with the disorder. Caliguiri as well as longtime Erie Mayor Lousi Tullio and Pennsylvania Governor Robert P. Casey were all diagnosed with the incurable and usually fatal disease.

Caliguiri refused to allow his declining health to affect his leadership and declined to step down as mayor. He finally succumbed to the illness in 1988 at the age of 56, and was interred in Pittsburgh's Roman Catholic Calvary Cemetery.
In October 1990, a commemorative statue of Caliguiri sculpted by Robert Berks was dedicated on the steps of the Downtown Pittsburgh City-County Building on Grant Street.