Former Greenville Mayor Max Heller dies at 92

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Former Greenville Mayor Max Heller has died at age 92.

June Smith at Mackey Mortuary in Greenville says Heller died early Monday. The cause of death was not released.

Heller escaped Nazi-occupied Austria at age 19 in 1938 and came to America where he worked as a janitor and eventually founded his own shirt company.

He was elected to Greenville City Council in 1969 and became mayor in 1971.

He worked to revitalize Greenville’s Main Street, which has become a tree-lined, visitor-friendly area.

Heller ran for Congress in 1978 as a Democrat, losing to Republican Carroll Campbell in a race where a Campbell campaign poll asked people’s preference for Campbell, described as a native South Carolinian, or Heller, described as a Jewish immigrant.

Campbell denied bringing religion into the race.