Former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed has died at the age of 70

Former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed died Saturday, according to PennLive.com. He was 70.

PennLive.com received a statement from the family about his death. 

"Reed was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 and fought it courageously," according to the statement.

Reed served as the mayor of Harrisburg for seven terms almost three decades but was later sentenced to probation for accumulating Wild West artifacts he bought with public money for a museum that was never built.

He lost the 2009 primary amid criticism over the millions of dollars he had spent on museum-related items. He and city officials scoured the country for artifacts that would stock the museum, which he had called part of a wider plan to make the city a museum destination for tourists.

He pleaded guilty in 2017 to 20 counts of receiving stolen property and was sentenced to two years of probation in the courthouse around the corner from his onetime mayoral offices. Reed apologized and told the judge he took responsibility for his actions, calling his prosecution "a gut-wrenchingly humiliating" process.

All of the charges involved photos or documents, a small portion of some 1,800 items investigators seized from his properties two years earlier. The judge said the sentence took into account Reed's cancer diagnosis as well as his guilty plea, his lack of a criminal record and his efforts to improve the city over 28 years as mayor.

He also served in the state House from 1975 to 1980.

He was credited for much of the city's development. Under his tenure, the city added a minor league baseball team, Harrisburg Senators, and created a park around it.

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Kevin Moore is the Sports Life Reporter for the York Daily Record where he dives into a beat finding stories that have a deeper meaning than sports itself. He can be reached at kemoore@ydr.com, 717-309-4814, or on Twitter at @kevmoore93.

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