Former Augusta commissioner found dead in Aiken County apartment

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Former Augusta commissioner found dead in Aiken County apartment

Bernard Harper

A former Augusta commissioner found dead in a Midland Valley apartment on Wednesday likely died of natural causes, Aiken County’s coroner said.

Bernard E. Harper, 73, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m., less than an hour after the coroner’s office was summoned to Kalmia Apartment Drive in Graniteville, S.C. An “extended family member” found Harper unresponsive, according to Aiken County Coroner Darryl Ables.

Growing up in Jersey City, N.J., Harper lived in the Augusta area for more than 30 years, working in the fields of hotel management, eldercare and commercial cleaning.

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Harper ran for the District 4 seat on the Richmond County Board of Education in 1996 and 2000 but lost both times to Andrew Jefferson. He also served from 2000 to 2006 on the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority. In 2005, Harper lost a four-way race for the Augusta Commision Super District 9 seat.

Harper narrowly defeated former Commissioner Alvin Mason in 2006 to complete the unexpired months of Richard Colclough’s District 4 term, which ended in 2007. A year later, Mason beat Harper to serve the next full four-year term. Mason defeated Harper again for the seat in 2010.

In 2018, Harper announced his intention to fill Jefferson’s unexpired District 5 term on the Augusta Commission, but the seat instead went to Bobby Williams in a March 2019 special election.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle:

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