Boulder City Councilman Warren Harhay dies at 76

Warren Harhay, a Boulder City councilman since 2017, died Tuesday night. He was 76.

The city released a statement about Harhay on Wednesday, calling him a “dedicated, steadfast” council member.

“He was an honorable man who listened to his constituents and voted in the best interest of the community as a whole,” the statement said.

His cause of death was not clear, but city spokeswoman Lisa LaPlante said it was not suspicious. Harhay had been hospitalized for several months, she said.

Harhay’s wife of 52 years, Marcia, said she thinks her husband died of heart failure, but did not ask.

In a Facebook post on May 8, Harhay wrote that he had been in and out of hospitals since suffering a fractured vertebra in March.

“Rather than improving, my condition has not been moving forward as it should,” he wrote. According to an earlier post, he suffered the injury when he fell from a chair in his garage.

Marcia Harhay said her husband had health issues that predated the injury, including diabetes and a heart attack that required surgery. His kidneys later failed, and he had been on dialysis for years, she said. The issues never stopped him from attending council meetings until he fell, she said.

Harhay was first elected to the council in 2017 at age 73 as a political newcomer.

“I’m flabbergasted by the results because I know I have spent the least of all the candidates on my candidacy,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on election day in June 2017. “I haven’t done anything the professionals say to do to win, but I stuck to my guns, and it looks like it’s paying off.”

This year, Harhay unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Boulder City but remained on the council.

Mayor Kiernan McManus said Harhay was a pleasure to work with. He described Harhay as a man of excellent character who worked on behalf of the citizens.

“I always found him to be open to listening to the constituents, and he tried to do what was in their best interests,” McManus said.

Former Councilwoman Peggy Leavitt considered Harhay a close friend. She described him as a devoted family man and and passionate council member. Harhay considered it the best job he ever had, she said.

“And he said it many times because he was just fearless about attacking issues and getting into issues and really examining them,” Leavitt said Wednesday.

And Harhay was quick-witted and didn’t mind poking fun at himself, she said.

Leavitt said he researched every issue, provided an independent voice on the council and made thoughtful decisions. Harhay was a man of integrity, she said.

“He was just an extraordinary man. He was just brilliant, and I don’t use that word lightly,” Leavitt said.

Harhay was a native of Cleveland, according to his biography on Boulder City’s website. He was an educator, scientist, inventor, businessman and community activist, according to the website.

Marcia Harhay recalled his love of learning, high sense of morals and ethics, adventurousness and dry sense of humor. One of the things she said she will miss most is the kindness he showed to his family.

She said her husband started many businesses. Among them was Electric Vehicle Associates, which produced a vehicle driven in President Jimmy Carter’s inaugural parade, Harhay’s biography said.

“A lot of what he did was way before its time,” Marcia Harhay said. “It’s like we had to catch up with Warren’s mind and what he was doing.”

Harhay is survived by his wife, Marcia; his three sons, Mitchell, Matthew and Marshall; and his four grandchildren, Annison, Andy, Lilly and Brad.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Glenn Puit contributed to this story.