Longtime Marana Mayor Ed Honea dies

Marana Mayor Ed Honea, who served nearly four decades as a leader in his hometown but whose political influence spread far beyond the town boundaries, died Friday, Nov. 22. He was 77.

“There’s not a guy, a person, who has had probably a greater impact on this community than Mayor Honea has,” Town Manager Terry Rozema said. “I don’t know that there’s really much of anything that doesn’t have his fingerprints on it.”

Town officials announced Honea’s death Friday in a news release, describing him as “a pillar of our community” who served the town “with unwavering commitment, vision and a genuine passion for making it a better place for all.”

Rozema said Honea’s death came as a shock to town officials who had seen him earlier in the week. On Tuesday, Honea presided over the first council meeting since members Roxanne Ziegler and Patrick Cavanaugh had been sworn in on Nov. 7; both were elected in August, when Honea won his re-election bid.

He was at the Town Hall again on Thursday for a lunch with the Northwest Fire District chief. Rozema said a town employee dropped the mayor off at home Thursday afternoon and someone from the town spoke with him later in the afternoon about a meeting Friday.

“I think that’s why it’s such a shock,” Rozema said. “Everybody saw him on Tuesday …. He was in the building making the rounds, laughing, joking. It’s an absolute shock.”

Vice Mayor Jon Post will assume the duties of mayor in an interim capacity, the town said.

Honea graduated from Marana High School in 1965 and went on to study at the U.S. Naval School of Construction and Pima Community College. During the Vietnam War, he served as a member of the U.S. Navy “Seabees,” the naval construction force.

Honea worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 25 years.

Since 2014, he had served as the town’s representative on the Regional Transportation Authority’s board, the governing body that oversees the implementation of transportation projects across Pima County.

Supervisor Rex Scott, a colleague of Honea’s on the RTA board, first reacted to Honea’s death in a post to X.

“He was a good friend and a public servant without peer. It was an honor to serve alongside Ed for the last four years on the PAG Regional Council and the RTA Board …. All of us benefited from his wisdom, experience and dedication to our community,” Scott said.

Scott said he and his wife saw Honea last weekend at the dedication for the Arizona Heroes Memorial in Oro Valley.

Honea “looked and sounded great,” Scott told the Star.

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“My fondest memory of him was a car tour he and I took of the parts of Marana that were part of District 1 shortly after I was elected. I will miss him, but his family and friends can take great comfort in reflecting on all he did for the town he loved so much,” Scott said.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, who also served alongside Honea and Scott on the RTA board, said in a statement that “his experience and leadership will be missed.”

“I always appreciated his willingness to continue our dialogue and valued how he always asked about me and my family,” she said. “On behalf of the City of Tucson, I’d like to extend our deepest condolences to his family and the residents of Marana.”

The Pima Association of Governments said the the longtime member was “a true friend, leader and man of integrity.”

“His influences and impacts have been widespread not only with our organization but throughout the region, especially in his role as mayor,” PAG said in its statement about Honea’s death. “His leadership over the years has been tremendous to the ongoing improvements in quality of life in the region, particularly with the implementation of the RTA plan.”

“A man who always took it all in, he was ever willing to share words of wisdom, in his open and straightforward style, to guide others on staying focused on the goal and what’s best for the people,” PAG said in its statement.

U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, in a post to X, said “Ed was exceptional in every way.”

“Ed was a true pillar of our community, dedicating decades of his life to the betterment of Southern Arizona and Marana. His unwavering commitment to transportation, public safety and economic growth leaves an irreplaceable void in our hearts and our community,” he said. “I will always remember him as the first person to believe in my campaign for Congress and started calling me Congressman way before I even decided to run. Yet, for Ed, politics was never an end in itself; he was driven by a deep desire to see tangible results for Marana.”

Honea’s legacy in Marana includes pushing to annex West Ina Road, from North Silverbell Road to North Thornydale Road. The annexation in the early 1990s also included Thornydale from Ina to West Orange Grove Road, encompassing the big-box stores including Costco, restaurants and other businesses.

The move “put the town on the map in terms of growing as a community,” Rozema said. The town has since added the sprawling communities of Continental Ranch, Gladden Farms and Saguaro Bloom subdivision on North Silverbell Road.

But Rozema said Honea will best be remembered for his love of the community. He knew the names of every employee in Town Hall and when he would see residents out and about, he would often recognize them, from a former Marana High football star to a town employee from years ago.

“He would make his rounds, popping his head into people’s offices, having conversation with people, and he would walk into my office — ‘What’s going on today boss?’ — even though he was my boss,” Rozema said.

“His love for the town and the passion for the people here. He loved the staff and he knew everybody by name. He couldn’t see you because his eyesight was so bad, but when he heard your voice, he knew you.”