He's tall (6-foot-4), lanky, balding, folksy, quick-witted, popular - oh, and prone to cuss on occasion. And, like the legendary swearing Mormon leader, he's damned sorry about it.

"It's a cross I've borne right along with the rest of the world," the two-term mayor laments about the loose lingo he sometimes lets fly. "But sometimes you just say things that you don't even know you said. You don't mean to offend."

Not many are offended in Lehi nowadays. Instead, the talk of the town - in stores, gas stations and other chat rooms - is about how Greenwood, 64, and other leaders bagged a Cabela's, an outdoor superstore expected to draw 4 million-plus visitors to Utah County's fourth largest city.

Indeed, Greenwood and his City Hall colleagues are riding high with most residents, though the Republican mayor refuses to take credit for the county's biggest retail coup in years.

"I look at it like all the planets lined up," he says. "Without the rest of the people involved, it would never have happened."

However much the mayor downplays his efforts, city insiders say Lehi never would have landed Cabela's without him.

"He's a terrific mayor who has really been a force for good in this community and has a wonderful way with people," City Administrator Edward Collins says.

As for his verbal faux pas, Greenwood quips, "Like J. Golden says, 'People think that's swearing, but they are hearing only a small portion of my vocabulary.' "

Besides, the mayor adds, all is forgiven. Asked by his LDS stake president during an interview for a temple recommend if there was anything amiss in his life, Greenwood told him he swore "a fair amount."

"But I heard from another stake president," he recalls adding, "that if you milked black and white cows or had anything to do with farm machinery in your formative years, then absolution was available."

He left the interview with a signed recommend.

Greenwood may have a salty tongue but, to friends and many city workers, he is the salt of the earth. Lehi Treasurer Suzanne Holmstead remembers the mayor pitching in to fix a plumbing problem at her home. On other occasions, resident Melvin Anderson says, Lehi's "handyman mayor" has installed bookshelves at schools, Sheetrock in homes, tile on roofs. He also shares homespun homilies with anyone willing to listen.

"If you are going to be involved in plumbing repair, don't chew your fingernails," is one of Collins' favorite Greenwood-isms. Another: "Some critters get around by swimming. Some critters get around by flying. Some critters by digging. I guess what I'm trying to tell you, Ed, is if you're a swimmer, don't try to dig."

Moral to the story: Stick to what you know. But there's more to the mayor's stories than meets the ears.

"The story may be all you get," Collins says. "But if you miss the point, then you miss out on a little gem of wisdom."

Greenwood mines his memories for metaphors. For instance, he recalls digging a trench for a gas line years ago while his co-workers gabbed and leaned on their shovels. Watching from a car across the road, the company owner got out and gave the idlers a blue slip.

"The lesson I learned from that is: When you're working, keep your head down, your butt up in the air and you'll be all right," Greenwood laughs.

Besides making an impact as mayor, Greenwood has excelled at business, bus driving and building, among other things. He and Reta, his wife of 44 years, have built homes for each of their five children. The couple met at the Twerp Twirl - Lehi's first-ever girls invitational dance - and have been an item ever since.

"There's rarely been a dull moment," Reta says.

Certainly not on Jan. 1, 1974, the day of the Great Race between Greenwood and Warren Fitzgerald. The mayor bet his hot-air balloon could beat Fitzgerald's "bucket of bolts" - a Beechcraft Bonanza - to 10,000 feet. It was 6 degrees below zero at race time.

The balloon failed to rise to the occasion, though, losing to the plane by a scant 150 feet. The descent to Utah Lake was even more of a downer. The balloon slid across the frozen lake into a hole in the ice, immersing Greenwood into neck-deep water. As he shoveled ice out of the gondola and stoked the burner, the balloon again took flight and plowed through some fences.

"It ripped his leg open," Reta says - and made headlines.

Greenwood thought the race was old news until Highland Mayor Jess Adamson recently resurrected it at a meeting of mayors.

"He started telling the story about this idiot [balloon pilot]," Greenwood says. "Well, he didn't know who the idiot was until I asked, 'Do you want to see the scars?' "

While Greenwood has been grounded ever since, his future is up in the air. He and Reta might serve an LDS mission at some point. He's having so much fun as mayor, he could pursue a third term. In the meantime, his mayoral objectives are simple:

"My goal is to keep the [city's] water coming out of the taps, the lights on when people flip the switch and when they flush the toilet, it goes away and has a place to go."

Well, hell, he's a mayor.

meddington@sltrib.com