Voters first elected Wise Mayor in 1987 due to a city charter change. “The job of the mayor is to preside over council meetings,” Doucet said, adding that Wise excelled at keeping the peace and moving meetings forward.

Service wasn’t limited to city government, with Wise participating as an active volunteer throughout Northwest Florida.

In addition to his mayoral duties, Wise was also a member of the Florida League of Cities, Inc., of which he served as president from 1979 to 1980. He received the E. Harris Drew Municipal Official Lifetime Achievement Award in 1979.

He worked with Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, the Niceville-Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, the Military Affairs Committee, the Host Committee for the Chamber of Commerce, the Ambassadors Committee, and the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council. 

He was one of the original captains of the Niceville Volunteer Fire Department.

A lifetime resident of Niceville, Wise graduated from Niceville High School. 

Wise married Mellodean Thomas in 1951, and the couple continued their life together in Niceville until Mellodean died in 1990. 

At the time of his death in 2020, Wise was survived by his wife, Helen, and their combined families: Randy and Debbie Wise, Jill and Rick Watson, Jayme and

Mark Wilson, Lori and Mark Hadley, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Wise was the type of man who would take time to explain to schoolchildren how a city government operates, never speaking down and treating them as any community member. He was also the type of person who could attend a friend’s birthday party without taking attention away from the guest of honor.

“He was just real pleasant, he was just real personable,” Doucet said. “He was quite the guy.”