Laurie Schwartz doesn’t want to talk about herself. She doesn’t want to brag about her 50 years of advocacy and planning work. She definitely doesn’t want her name on anything.

But Schwartz enjoys talking about what makes Baltimore special. Its water. Its public spaces. Its people. And, of course, its trash wheels.

On June 30, Schwartz will retire as president of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, a role she has held since the nonprofit’s creation in 2005. Before that, she had stints working for the city, first as a volunteer, later as a deputy mayor. She also spent 15 years as president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore and nine years as an independent consultant.

“I never expected to stay,” said Schwartz, 72, a native of Buffalo, New York. “But I just fell in love with Baltimore.”

Schwartz, who will be rooting for the Ravens this weekend, came to the city in 1974 for graduate school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She said it was an exciting time for the city and its waterfront.

William Donald Schaefer was mayor, and the Inner Harbor was going through a rebirth. A few years later, construction on Harborplace would begin.

Schwartz said she started volunteering at the city’s housing department and was quickly hired full time. The agency then was led by Bob Embry, who is now the president of the Abell Foundation. Embry called Schwartz honest, energetic and imaginative.

“She’s a real city treasure,” Embry said. “She exemplifies the best of public service.”

As president of the Waterfront Partnership, Schwartz has had a hand in variety of projects and programs around the Inner Harbor area, including the development of Rash Field Park, the return of the outdoor ice rink and the start of the Harbor Splash.

Last summer, the Waterfront Partnership organized an event where more than 150 people took turns jumping into the harbor and swimming around. It was a celebration of the harbor’s improving water quality, which Schwartz said was the result of years of work by the city to improve sewage services and contain leaks.

This year, Schwartz said she hopes to be able to not just jump in the harbor — but maybe swim across it.

Michael Hankin, who was board chair of the Waterfront Partnership for more than a decade, credited Schwartz as the force behind many of the public spaces and improvements along the harbor.

“She is incredibly talented, and her positivity is motivational to many others, including myself,” Hankin said in a statement.

When Schwartz retires, she plans on spending more time with family and friends and on her painting. She praised her staff at the Waterfront Partnership and is confident that whoever succeeds her will be successful.

“It’s not about me. It really isn’t,” Schwartz said. “I want people to come and enjoy the harbor. And what I feel so good about is having a role in creating these public places where people can come and be comfortable and interact with people that they otherwise might not interact with.”

Schwartz said she can stop by Rash Field at any point in the day and see people from all over the city, whether they’re kids scrambling up the playground, skateboarders practicing new tricks, or parents pushing strollers.

To Schwartz, it doesn’t matter whether anyone knows that she had a role in creating that public space or others. The warm feeling she gets when she hears the laughter and shrieks of children playing is more than enough.