Former Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, one of the state’s most powerful figures before revelations that he had sexually abused a teenager, died Wednesday, two days before he would have turned 84.

As the young mayor of Portland in the 1970s, Goldschmidt was an electrifying figure. While many American cities were falling apart, he presided over a flurry of innovation in the City of Roses. He helped kill a freeway and launch a light rail. Under his watch, inner-city neighborhoods were lavished with money and attention. Buses sped passengers for free through a downtown transit mall.

Portland historian Carl Abbott said Goldschmidt showed early in his political career that he was a consummate power broker: ”Unlike some other people who think they are dealmakers, he could actually see common points among disparate interests and see how you could pull them together — find something they could all agree on.”

Goldschmidt vaulted to national prominence as President Jimmy Carter’s transportation secretary. He returned to Oregon and won the governorship in 1986 and eventually morphed into a powerful behind-the-scenes consultant.

By the early 2000s, he was asked to take charge of efforts to remake Oregon’s system of higher education. And he was the front man for a Texas firm’s audacious deal to buy Portland General Electric — the state’s largest utility.

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This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Former Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt dies