Many people have been involved over the past 30 years in helping Wheeling forge a new future. One of the most influential, at least from the standpoint of driving public policy and pushing the city of Wheeling itself to think and work differently, was former 1st Ward Councilman Larry “Babe” Schmitt.

Schmitt, 77, died Saturday. He was a three-plus decade educator and coach in Ohio County Schools and a lifelong Warwood resident. In his community, he was a member of the Warwood Vets and a past treasurer of the organization. In 2002, the Warwood Lions honored Schmitt as its Citizen of the Year.

While short, his time on Wheeling City Council — two terms, from 1996 to 2004 — was very consequential. Schmitt and former councilors Mike Nau and the late Cliff Sligar ­helped the city reimagine how it allocated funding to organizations. In contrast to the contrived, let’s-not-say-anything approach utilized by many public officials today, Schmitt, at nearly every council meeting, would take the floor and address a topic of importance to Wheeling and its citizens. He took his duty as a councilor seriously, and with the leadership of former mayors Jack Lipphardt and Nick Sparachane, along with former city manager Will Turani and current manager Robert Herron, the group set the stage for many of the changes we’re seeing today in the city.

The Downtown Streetscape project, an evolving vision of what downtown needs to be as opposed to what it used to be, a focus on driving Wheeling into the future instead of only holding on to the past — that movement we’re all embracing now has its roots with Schmitt and the council on which he served. That group challenged the status quo and set the foundations of a new beginning for Wheeling. Others have carried that work forward, but much of the credit belongs with them.

There’s so much more, but in the end, Schmitt’s love for his community always stood out as his guiding principle. That’s special.

There aren’t many left like Larry “Babe” Schmitt.

Rest in peace, friend.