By Kathy Canavan
Mike Purzycki, Wilmington’s 56th mayor, came to Delaware at 17 to play Blue Hen football. He wound up putting down roots and marrying the banker next door.
After his record-setting football career at the University of Delaware, Purzycki returned home to Newark, N.J. He played football for the New York Giants until a knee injury derailed his pro career.
He returned to Newark, Delaware, where he worked in real estate and development by day and attended Delaware Law School at night. After earning his law degree, Purzycki served as attorney for the state Senate and practiced real estate law.
His next-door neighbors were Maggie and Ed Richitelli. One of their daughters, Bette, studied at attend University of California Berkeley, earned an MBA and was working in mergers and acquisitions for JP Morgan in San Francisco.
She met Purzycki when she came home to visit her parents. She never left.
Mike and Bette Purzycki, who live in the Highlands, have two grown children in New York City and a 14-year-old at home.
Purzycki will be 71 when he’s inaugurated. He married at 37. And, in an era when the conventional wisdom was golfers had to begin playing before age 20, he learned at 37. His father-in-law, two-time club champion at Wilmington Country Club and 10-time champ at Newark Country Club, gave him a set of used clubs.
