The most fitting epitaph for radio personality and former Auburn mayor Ed Lauckern Sr. may be consensus builder.

Lauckern, 70, died Wednesday afternoon at a Syracuse-area hospital.

"Whether it was politicians, whether it was administrators, whether it was a project that required five agencies, he was so good at building those teams," said Vijay Mital, who served under Lauckern as the city's director of planning and economic development, a department created through Lauckern's impetus.

"He was so good at talking to people, whether low-income or business people or the industrialist, he would bring them all together," Mital added.

Lauckern's coalition-building helped the city of Auburn succeed in a successful run of securing block grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to rehabilitate debilitated properties. State and federal officials liked Lauckern's approach of obtaining funding sources from different levels of government, Mital said.

Lauckern's team-oriented leadership helped save 350 jobs, said Jim Hutchinson, a Democrat who was appointed by the Republican Lauckern to serve on the Auburn Industrial Development Authority.

In 1991, shortly before the end of Lauckern's last term, SnyderGeneral - now McQuay International - announced it was going to close its Auburn plant in favor of a more up-to-date facility in Tennessee.

Lauckern put together a city team to travel to Texas to convince the air-conditioning company to keep its Auburn plant open. Their pitch of a $40 million package involving industrial development bonds, tax abatement, state-funded job training and low-interest loans did the trick.

The Auburn pitch changed a decision that was finalized in the minds of SnyderGeneral's operators, Hutchinson said.

"He was just a wonderful gentleman. I think that describes everything he did. He could be political, naturally, but he always put the city first and politics second," Hutchinson said.

The SnyderGeneral success was only the biggest example of Lauckern's ability to listen to all sides and develop inclusive public policy, Lauckern's former colleagues and political rivals said.

"He had the personality about him that made that possible," said Bill McKeon, who ran against Lauckern for the mayor's seat on the Democratic ticket in 1987. "He was a conciliator. When he saw a solution, he ran with it and got it done."

His biggest accomplishments were bringing a divided council into a "unified, working group," and "his outgoing way of satisfying the public," said Bruce Clifford, who was city manager during the years Lauckern was a city councilor and mayor.

Lauckern had an open door to the viewpoints of his city department heads and to the public he served, Clifford said.

"He never really lost his temper in the public," Clifford said. "He was always able to keep an even keel and explain things the way that he thought they would be best for the city."

The ability to hear both sides also applied to Lauckern's radio program "Ed Lauckern Live," said Alan Bishop, the general manager and vice president at Finger Lakes One, which broadcasts on the WAUB station.

"Many talk show hosts don't come across as friendly and warm and willing to see both sides of the situation. He was the kind of host that would see both sides of the issue. Unlike larger talk shows like Rush Limbaugh, he was one from the old school, who makes sure if there is an issue to be talked about, both sides of the issue got fair representation," Bishop said.

Lauckern was a man of many trades: a radio talk show host on WAUB and a columnist for The Citizen, who also worked as a truck driver, city councilor and Auburn mayor.

"I remember being in the mayor's office. It would be late at night. The meetings would go on forever," said Mayor Tim Lattimore, who served on the city council while Lauckern was mayor. "And he would have to get in his car to drive to Moravia to pick up a truck to drive to North Carolina. Seeing the effort that he put forth to procure a livelihood for his family, he was an excellent role model."

Lauckern stayed active in the community in recent years, despite his poor state of health after suffering a stomach aneurysm that almost killed him in April 2003.

Lauckern hoped to be elected county clerk in 2003, before pulling out of the race following the ruptured artery in his stomach.

He was in a coma for several weeks in 2003 before improving. Lauckern required kidney dialysis since the aneurysm, and he underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in October 2003.

State officials also praised Lauckern's public service stamina.

"His legacy of broadcasting is unmatched in the community," said state Sen. David Valesky, D-Oneida. "Ed was a man who could always rise above the fray with warmth and civility."

"I know no one who showed more compassion for the people he served," said state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette.

Lauckern and his wife Marilyn raised two children, Edward III and Mary Lynn. They have several grandchildren.

"He was an 'Auburn boy' and very proud of it," said Assemblyman Gary Finch, R-Auburn. "He will be missed. There are too few Ed Lauckerns in this world."

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net