A former steelworker who became a journalist when the mills closed is retiring from the trade Friday.

Tribune-Review reporter Bob Bauder, 66, has covered the Pittsburgh City Hall beat for the Trib for nine years. In all, Bauder has worked 31 years as a reporter.

After graduating from Hopewell High School in his native Beaver County, Bauder worked for a dozen years as an electrician at J&L Steel’s Aliquippa plant, which later became known as LTV Steel.

When LTV closed most of the Aliquippa Works in the mid-1980s, Bauder went to college to pursue a new trade: journalism. He was in his mid-30s when he earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism with a minor in American history from Penn State.

“His trek from steelworker to journalist inspired younger colleagues like myself,” said Dave Sottile, who worked alongside Bauder at Penn State’s Daily Collegian.

After college, Bauder worked as a reporter at the Bloomsburg Press-Enterprise for about six years before returning home to work as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. After spending about 15 years there, he took a reporting job at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in 2010. He became the Trib’s Pittsburgh City Hall reporter in July 2011.

“There is no better or more respected reporter in Pittsburgh than Bob, who is one of the last old-school beat reporters around,” said Tim McNulty, spokesman for Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto. “When people ask me how or why he’s so good, I note, for example, that he knows the names of city workers’ kids and dogs.”

City Council President Theresa Kail-Smith, who sponsored legislation to declare July 17 as “Mr. Bob Bauder Day” in Pittsburgh, called Bauder “the quintessential reporter.”

“He’s going to be missed here. He got details down to a science,” Kail-Smith said.

Luis Fabregas, editor of the Tribune- Review’s Allegheny County and Valley News Dispatch coverage, described Bauder as a “legend in Pittsburgh journalism.”

“He is always persistent and reliable,” Fabregas said. “But what I admire the most about him is that he’s so authentic — free of pretense and always speaking his mind. With Bob, what you see is what you get.”

Bauder covered two Pittsburgh mayoral administrations.

As for July 17 being declared “Mr. Bob Bauder Day” in Pittsburgh, Bauder said, “Never in a million years did I think I would receive such an honor.”

Bauder addressed City Council after it passed the proclamation.

“Nine years ago I came into this building and this city was on the verge of bankruptcy. You all should be proud for guiding it out of there and leading one of the greatest transformations, probably second to none in this country,” Bauder said.

“This city has gone through pestilence, flood, pandemic, financial collapse, lost a couple of Super Bowls and the disaster in Atlanta (when the Pirates lost Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series). I’m sure it’ll come out of these current crises a much better place,” Bauder added.

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