From kindness to toughness, the lessons former SLC Mayor Ted Wilson left behind

Family members mingled Monday on the third floor of Salt Lake City Hall, where former Mayor Ted Wilson spent a decade of his life, guiding the growing city he cherished in the historic building he helped preserve.

They basked in the snapshots of a political career that made Wilson a fixture among Utah Democrats. They admired two portraits flanking the desk he labored at during his mayoral tenure. A colorful caricature of Wilson before his beloved mountains graced the exhibit along with a book for mourners to record their remembrances.

These physical reminders and more of Wilson, who died last week at 84, went on display Monday and will be open for public viewing until Friday.

Among those who came to City Hall to honor the late mayor were his daughter Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson and his widow, former Salt Lake Tribune editor and columnist Holly Mullen.

Reporters asked both about how Wilson will be remembered and what they learned from him.

Jenny Wilson reflects

The county mayor said she and the rest of her family want to share the message that her father loved people — and they loved him.

The best piece of advice Wilson received from her father?

• “It wasn’t so much what he said; it was how he lived. We had a chance to witness my dad, as young kids in this building, governing, and doing it in a way that was so open and warm to people. He could be tough, but he always respected people.”

How has she tried to incorporate her father’s example into her own life?

• “Serving in public life can have its challenges. There are times when I feel, as a woman in politics, I have to be tough, and I’ll be leaning into my tough side just trying to make a point or be heard, and sometimes I just say to myself, you know, ‘Channel you inner Ted Wilson,’ because my dad was always so kind. People first, and that’s been a lesson to me.”

How will he be remembered?

• Wilson said her father will be seen as a reformer who brought youthful energy and optimism to City Hall. “But I think fundamentally, it didn’t matter who he met, whether it was the guy that was helping him trim trees at his house or a government official back in the day. He was always kind to people.”

Wilson and his first wife had five children. He later married Mullen and was stepfather to her two kids.

Holly Mullen reflects

Mullen recalled a time she ran for office and received sage advice from her husband ahead of a speech: Ditch the notes.

• “Speak from the heart,” she said. “Use your heart to communicate with people.”

Mullen said she wants people to know her late husband was “bold” and a “calculated risk-taker.”

• “He ran for office in his late 30s. He was the youngest mayor in the country at that time. He took a big risk.”

• “He also had the stamina and the strength and the wisdom and people skills to get out and talk to people and feel their feelings and work with them.”

• Wilson reinvented himself after losing several races as a Democrat in a red state, Mullen said. “In the end, it was always about teaching, especially younger people, and just staying connected and staying involved and finding ways through really difficult, knotty … issues with Republicans, with independents, with people who didn’t see things the way he did.”

A memorial service will be held for Wilson on May 17 at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The same day, the clock tower at City Hall will chime 30 times in honor of the city’s 30th mayor.