FORMER Newcastle councillor and deputy lord mayor Andrea Rufo has died.
A statement from the Rufo family and City of Newcastle yesterday confirmed the news.
Mr Rufo served as a councillor for nine years and announced he would be retiring from public life ahead of the 2021 election.
Mr Rufo's wife Sandie said her husband had left a lasting legacy of love for his family and for the people of a city he cared so much about.
City of Newcastle CEO Jeremy Bath said in the statement he last spoke to Mr Rufo earlier this month "where true to form, he had a positive outlook and fighting spirit".
Mr Rufo will be "dearly missed" by Mrs Rufo and his four daughters, Jessica, Giordana, Candace and Kaitlin.
Details of his celebration of life will be shared by his family, according to the statement.
Mr Rufo was first elected as a Ward 3 councillor in 2012, served as deputy lord mayor in 2014 and 2015, and was re-elected in 2017. When he announced he would not contest the 2021 election, he said it had "been an honour" to serve the residents of Ward 3 and "Newcastle as a whole".
He nominated voting for Newcastle's ANZAC Walk, campaigning for two bronze kangaroos to be placed at the Lambton Park Memorial Gates, and excavating and burying a park time capsule as his fondest memories.
He served as part of the Newcastle Independents alliance with John Church, Kath Elliott and Allan Robinson. In 2013, he was awarded an OAM after more than two decades of community service and charity work.
"All the work that I do, it would have been very hard without the support of my family," he said at the time.
In a public Facebook post in August to mark his 60th birthday, Mr Rufo said he had been through a "very tough year" after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in December 2023 and undergoing months of chemotherapy.
At that time, he thanked his family, friends and everyone who had supported him.
