John Voorde: forty years an elected official

1945 – 2026

The mayor's son who started in the street department: John Joseph Voorde was born in 1945, the son of Edward F. "Babe" Voorde, the mayor whose death in a car crash on 2 September 1960 — the boy's first day of high school — is told in the Government section. The son's road into the city's service ran from the bottom of its payroll: Sean Coleman, himself later a council member and county treasurer, remembered meeting John Voorde in the early 1960s painting a crosswalk at Diamond and Vassar as an employee of the street department, where he rose to foreman. He taught social studies from 1968 to 1972. In 1979 the voters elected him to the Common Council at large, and for the rest of his life some electorate or other kept him in office.

The sequence of offices: The council's own valedictory fixes the first leg: Resolution No. 1830-91, passed 7 January 1991, commends John Voorde "for his eleven (11) years of dedicated service as Council Member At-Large," served since 1 January 1980, records that he "served with pride as President of the Council" — the presidency fell in Mayor Kernan's first term — and wishes him success "as he embarks on new challenges as the Portage Township Assessor." The assessor's office held him through the 1990s; from it he stood for mayor in 1999 and lost to the incumbent, Stephen Luecke. In 2003, still assessor, he filed for city clerk against the incumbent Loretta Duda, won, and kept the clerk's office from 2004 through 2015 — the clerk's minutes attest him in the office to November 2015. Then he reversed the journey: in 2015 he stood for the council again while endorsing his own deputy, Kareemah Fowler, for clerk, and sat at large once more, on the council of the 2018 roster and into the term that followed. The Tribune's accounting at his death put the whole at forty years as an elected official.

The end of the line: John Voorde died on 2 September 2026, aged 81, of complications of post-polio syndrome — sixty-six years to the day after his father's death in office. The tributes the Tribune gathered were from across the aisle: Derek Dieter, the Republican surveyor, had supported Voorde's 1999 mayoral campaign and was endorsed by Voorde in return in 2020. No other servant in this section held so many of the city's offices in one lifetime: councilman, council president, township assessor, city clerk, councilman again — the machinery of the Government section, carried by one man across four decades.

Sources:

1. City of South Bend, Resolution No. 1830-91 (7 January 1991; city document archive) — eleven years as council member at large since 1 January 1980; service as council president; departure for the Portage Township assessorship; signed by Irene Gammon, City Clerk.
2. South Bend Tribune, "Local leaders reflect on life, legacy of longtime South Bend politician" (5 September 2026) — death 2 September 2026, aged 81; the street-department crosswalk memory; the 1999 mayoral campaign and the Dieter endorsements across party lines; forty years an elected official.
3. Kaniewski Funeral Homes obituary of John Joseph Voorde (September 2026) — born 1945, son of Mayor Edward F. Voorde; street-department foreman; teacher 1968–1972; first elected 1979.
4. South Bend Tribune (January 2003), as indexed in the ProQuest record — "Voorde to file for city clerk; Portage Township assessor seeks return to South Bend politics," against incumbent clerk Loretta Duda.
5. City of South Bend, Common Council minutes, 23 November 2015 (city document archive) — John Voorde attesting as City Clerk.