Sep. 8--Joseph F. Coyne III was a man whom most knew for his dedication to Exeter Borough, serving nearly 30 years, collectively, as mayor and councilman.

Others knew him for his mild-mannered ways, while his family knew him as a husband, father and fighter.

Coyne, 70, passed away early Sunday morning at home after a long battle with brain cancer.

"He lost all use of his right side," said Coyne's daughter Barbara Velazquez of Exeter. "The doctor didn't think my father would be able to walk again ...but he worked his way back. He was a fighter."

Velazquez said her father was diagnosed with the disease in September 2007, and eventually walked again. "He did what he always did in his life ... fight and be strong."

And, for 30 years that's just what Coyne did for the borough of Exeter, serving 17 years as councilman and three terms as mayor.

"Exeter was very important to my father," Velazquez said. "It was his life."

Daniel DeRoberto, Exeter Borough Council vice president for the past eight years, said what he will remember most about Coyne is that he was a mild-mannered man. "He was wonderful ... it will be a great loss to the borough," DeRoberto, who had known Coyne for 26 years, said Sunday.

"The only thing he ever regretted was that he couldn't enjoy his retirement (since becoming ill)," Velazquez said. "He waited so long to retire and wanted to enjoy his life with his wife (Barbara) and my sister, Colleen, who is a special-needs patient."

Velazquez said her father had one thing he wished for after he passed: That his 20-year-old granddaughter, Cassandra Coleman, complete the one year and three months left of his third term as mayor of Exeter, and then hopefully run for mayor in 2010.

"My grandfather left me something," Coleman said. "His love for government, politics and everything like that."

Coleman said she remembers going to the polls with her grandfather as a young girl and carrying election posters at age 4.

"I'm ready for the challenge (of being mayor)," Coleman said. "I'm ready to fight for everything he wanted (for Exeter) and didn't get to do."

Coleman said if she has it her way, her grandfather's name will never be forgotten in Exeter.

"He was a wonderful man, I respected him so much," Coleman said. "If I can be half of the person he was, I'd be grateful."

To read Joseph Coyne's obituary, see page 6A.

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