Former Indiana Governor and Mayor of South Bend Joe Kernan is being treated for Alzheimer’s disease.

An article in Notre Dame Magazine says the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history has lost the ability to speak and is in a care facility.

Kernan, who is 74, became governor in September 2003 after Governor Frank O’Bannon died of complications from a stroke.

After leaving office in 2005 he formed an investment group to buy the South Bend Silverhawks, in order to prevent a new owner from relocating the minor league baseball team.

Kernan is a graduate of St. Joseph’s High School and the University of Notre Dame. He served as a Navy pilot in the Vietnam Conflict and was shot down in May 1972 and held prisoner for nearly a year.