Former St. Anthony Mayor Jerry Faust, call sign “Swamp Fox 5,” passed away Dec. 15, 2025, at age 79. The cause of death was an undiagnosed brain tumor.
At a May 31 memorial gathering at Silverwood Park, his son, Ron Faust, said the family first noted changes in his father’s speech last August, but Jerry refused to see a doctor. The glioblastoma quickly took over.
North Dakota boyhood
Jerome Oswin Faust was born in Valley City, N.D., March 6, 1946, one of five children. “My family went to North Dakota during the Dust Bowl. We were dirt poor,” he told the Northeaster in 2019. “But it didn’t matter. If you were able-bodied and you saw someone who needed help, that’s what you did.”
His younger brother, Bob, confirmed the family’s poverty. “When we were kids, all five of us had to sleep in the same bedroom to keep warm. There was only an oil burner downstairs,” he said at the memorial.
He said Jerry was a “typical big brother. One night he put peanut butter on pieces of bread and laid them on his eyes face up. He said something about not being able to see. I reached over in the dark and put my hand in peanut butter. I yelled!”
They attended a Catholic grade school, where Jerry played football and basketball. “He really liked football,” Bob said.
When his family moved to the St. Cloud area, Jerry often accompanied his father on his route, delivering Pepsi products around central Minnesota. He soon knew the routes so well that he was asked to accompany new drivers on their rounds. He later worked in the bottling plant and as a door-to-door seller of pots and pans.
Faust, right, flew a “Bird Dog” fixed-wing Cessna airplane on reconnaissance missions in Vietnam. His call sign was “Swamp Fox 5.” (Provided)
A military man
In 1965, married men were exempt from the draft for the Vietnam War. At 11:30 one night, Bob recalled, Jerry and his girlfriend, Mary, went before a justice of the peace and got married. “He still ended up going in,” he said.
He was accepted into Officers Candidate School. Although he was assigned to the infantry, he began taking flight training.
In Vietnam, Faust flew a Cessna “Bird Dog,” a small, fixed-wing aircraft. According to the Lone Star Flight Museum in Houston, Tex., “A Bird Dog would locate and identify a target while attack aircraft waited high overhead. The Bird Dog used phosphorous rockets to identify the target to the attack aircraft. After the attack the Bird Dog would remain on scene to report the results.”
Later, Faust trained on helicopters. In all, he spent 22 years in the military, becoming a Master Army Aviator. He commanded an aviation battalion, as well as a mechanized infantry company, and retired as a lieutenant colonel.
After leaving the service, he worked as an assessor for Anoka County.
Decorum and color-coordinated polos
Faust moved to St. Anthony in 1980, where he became involved in civic duties, spending six years on the city’s Planning Commission and four years on the City Council. He and his second wife, Diane, lived along Silver Lake.
He won election to the City Council in 1995. He went up against Dennis Cavanaugh in the 1999 mayoral race and lost. When Cavanaugh stepped down in 2001, Faust was appointed to the City Council and was reelected in 2003. Mayor Randy Hodson died in a plane crash Aug. 12, 2004, and Faust was appointed to serve out his term. A special election for a new mayor was held Dec. 14. “He was not happy door-knocking in December,” former Mayor Randy Stille remembered.
As mayor, he insisted on maintaining proper decorum during council meetings. “He took the job very seriously,” said Council Member Jan Jenson. “He had a deep knowledge of governance and how the city and state interacted. He was always concerned about the greater good, and not individual interests.”
He also insisted on a dress code: Male council members were expected to show up in a suit and tie. When the council attended League of Minnesota Cities meetings, they were often teased about their color-coordinated polo shirts emblazoned with the St. Anthony logo.
Faust was deeply interested in the city’s infrastructure. He pushed a plan to keep streets, sewers and sidewalks and facilities in good repair on a regular schedule.
One of the five times Faust was sworn in as mayor. He retired in 2019. (Provided)
Faust and the Islamic community
In 2012, eight years into his mayoral career, two Muslim groups joined forces to purchase the former Medtronic headquarters on Hwy. 88 to establish Abu Huraira Islamic Center. Opposition from St. Anthony citizens was loud and took on a racist tone. The City Council voted 4-1 against the proposed worship center, arguing that the area was zoned for light industrial use.
Leaders of the Islamic community turned to the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Minnesota (CAIR-MN), which contacted the Justice Department. U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging racism was behind the vote.
Realizing the city would probably not win, a compromise was struck: The mosque could hold prayer services in the building, 90% of which would be rented out to businesses, keeping the light industrial zoning in place.
Speaking to MPR News, Faust said, “Sometimes you just need to take a look at it and say, what is best for the community, how do we move forward, how do we commence the healing, and how do we make it better for all parties involved to the best of our ability?”
The death of Philando Castile
Racism raised its ugly head again in July 2016, when St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot and killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights. Castile’s girlfriend recorded the incident on her cell phone.
The community was split, with some residents defending the police department and others demanding reform. St. Anthony Village Hall soon became the epicenter of protests, with protesters staging a “die-in” on Silver Lake Road and carrying signs saying, “Skin doesn’t come off, uniforms do.” Demonstra-