ALBANY — Karen Johnson knew him as “a wonderful person” and a “very good governor.”

“He had a great elegance about the way that he spoke,” Johnson recalled of Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor who died Thursday at 82, “and his interest in policy issues was very, very strong.”

She said the most impressive thing he did as governor was the speech he gave at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, in which he challenged then-President Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.”

“It was just unbelievable,” she said.

Johnson, who served as mayor of Schenectady from 1985 to 1992, said Mario Cuomo appointed her to various boards regarding police, building codes and property tax exemption.

“He just seemed very, very interested in how the government worked and making it work,” said Johnson, now a Schenectady County legislator.

She remembered talking to him when his son, Andrew, was first running for governor and how excited he was about it. She said the father and son were similar in that their public service ideals were both strong, but their personalities and approaches to governing were very different. Mario Cuomo served as governor from 1983 to 1994.

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Daily Gazette: Local officials recall Mario Cuomo as a leader and thinker

Ned Campbell | Friday, January 2, 2015