Dave Glenn calls Ben Keyes his unsung hero.

Keyes, who lost his 26-month battle with cancer as a teen in the late 90s, only further fueled Glenn’s dedication to his community.

“The journey of 26 months with Ben is one I’ll never forget and I’ll always treasure,” Glenn said. “He never once complained the entire time.”

There are few nights where Glenn doesn’t run into a young adult—or middle-aged adult, now—that he coached while with Havre de Grace Little League. Glenn has logged more than 30 years as a volunteer with the Havre de Grace Little League, earning the distinction of being inducted into the league’s hall of fame.

He’s also been involved in the school community, and his first major introduction to city officials was in pushing for a safer crossing of U.S. Route 40 at Lewis Lane.

Glenn, 55, works at Aberdeen Proving Ground as a supervisory management analyst, and he said his people skills are a necessity in his profession.

“I’ve always said, nobody is as smart as all of us,” Glenn said. “When you get together on a project, if you get five other people in a room with Dave Glenn, you come up with a better option and a better solution. I believe everybody has a niche.”

Glenn feels he can have a niche on council.

It was during a First Friday event last summer that he ultimately decided to run for Havre de Grace City Council, parlaying his years of volunteerism into a new civic venture.

“I said I’m not only going to make the commitment, I’m going to start going to council meetings,” Glenn said.

So he did, attending virtually every meeting from the late summer through now.

He has the blessing of his wife, Terri, who works at the senior center at the Havre de Grace Activity Center. Many of those seniors urged him to run for council.

Glenn is a Havre de Grace High alum. Both of his children—Kellie and Shawn—graduated from Havre de Grace, too.

Seeing a new high school and magnet program to completion is important to Glenn.

At a time when politics have become partisan—even at the non-partisan municipal level—Glenn seems to be more like an active neighbor than a politician.

While others addressed or dodged the question of political affiliation during the Chamber of Commerce candidates forum, Glenn tackled the question the only way he knew: honestly.

Glenn stood before a room of business leaders in Havre de Grace and proclaimed: “I’m a Warrior.”

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See more Patch coverage of the 2012 election.