List of longest-serving mayors in the United States
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Some of the longest-serving mayors in the United States are listed according to their length of service in that currently or has served in that part of the state or legislative office. The office of mayor is the highest ranking local official and responsibilities may vary from ceremonial (see weak mayor) to full-time responsibility for city operations (see strong mayor).
Current serving mayors[]
A list of mayors still in office and ordered by their length of continuous service in that office. (If there is a break in their service, then this length is measured from their return to the office.)
The longest-serving current mayor of one of the 50 largest cities in the United States is Tom Barrett, who has been mayor of Milwaukee since April 15, 2004.
Years | Name | Municipality | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
50 years, 259 days | Robert M. Blais | Lake George, New York | Entered office on April 5, 1971 |
47 years, 92 days | Milt Kramer | Manchester, Iowa | Entered office on September 19, 1974 |
46 years, 263 days | Margaret Doud | Mackinac Island, Michigan | Entered office on April 1, 1975. |
44 years | William D. Tate | Grapevine, Texas | Entered office in 1973. Served 1973–1985 and 1988–present[1] |
45 years, 353 days | Robert Heidenescher | Dupont, Ohio | Entered office on January 1, 1976. |
44–45 years | Harold Rainwater | Wilmore, Kentucky | Entered office in 1976. |
44 years, 43 days | Robert Chatfield | Prospect, Connecticut | Entered office on November 7, 1977. |
43–44 years | Jim L. Sells | Rogersville, Tennessee | Entered office in 1977. |
41–42 years | Noel B. Cummings | Hodgkins, Illinois | Entered office in 1979. |
41–42 years | Marvin Johnson | Independence, Minnesota | Entered office in 1979. |
39–40 years | Mary Hawkins Butler | Madison, Mississippi | Entered office in 1981. |
39–40 years | Jeffery D. Schielke | Batavia, Illinois | Entered office in 1981. |
40 years, 167 days | Mark Anthony McClure | Danville, West Virginia | Entered office on July 6, 1981. |
39 years, 49 days | James V. Bender Jr | Pollocksville, North Carolina | Entered office on November 1, 1982. |
38 years, 353 days | William "Bill" McIntosh | Moultrie, Georgia | Entered office in 1983. |
37 years, 352 days | William W. Dickinson, Jr. | Wallingford, Connecticut | Entered office in 1984. |
35–36 years | Louie Davis | Waldo, Florida | Entered office in 1985. |
34 years, 139 days | Carlos López Rivera | Dorado, Puerto Rico | Entered office on August 3, 1987. |
28 years, 353 days | J. Christian Bollwage | Elizabeth, New Jersey | Entered office on January 1, 1993.[2] |
Former mayors[]
A list of mayors in order of their total length of service in that office. (If there is a break in their service, then this length is measured as the sum of their terms.)
Years | Name | Municipality | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
63 years, 73 days | Hilmar Moore | Richmond, Texas | Served from September 22, 1949 to December 4, 2012.[3] |
61 years, 111 days | John H. Land | Apopka, Florida | Served from January 1, 1950 to January 1, 1968 and from January 1, 1971 to April 22, 2014. |
60 years | Charles E. Long | Booneville, Kentucky | Served from 1958 until his death on August 3, 2019. [4] |
58 years, 233 days | Robert Linn | Beaver, Pennsylvania | Served from January 2, 1946 to August 22, 2004. |
57 years, 333 days | Bruce Arnold | Valparaiso, Florida | Served from January 21, 1964 until his death on February 23, 2017. |
56 years | Paul Jurko | Yankee Lake, Ohio | Served from November, 1931 until his death on March 1, 1988. |
54 years | Robert L. Butler | Marion, Illinois | Served from May, 1963 until his resignation on January 31, 2018. |
52 years | Gerald Calabrese | Cliffside Park, New Jersey | Served from 1961 to 1963 and 1965 to 2015.[5][6] |
52 years, 0 days | John M. Coyne | Brooklyn, Ohio | Served from 1948 to January, 2000.[7][Notes 1] |
51 years | Donald Stephens | Rosemont, Illinois | First Mayor of Rosemont. Served from village's incorporation in 1956 to 2007. |
50 years, 298 days | Leonard Scarcella | Stafford, Texas | Served from September 4, 1969 until his death on June 28th, 2020.[8] |
50 years | Leonard T. Connors | Surf City, New Jersey | Served from 1966 to January 5, 2016. |
46 years, 364 days | H. Ford Gravitt | Cumming, Georgia | Served from January 1, 1971 to December 31, 2017. |
48 years, 352 days | Frank E. Rodgers | Harrison, New Jersey | Served from September 4, 1946 to August 22, 1995. |
48 years, 19 days | Randall Wise | Niceville, Florida | Served from August, 1972 until his death on January 20, 2020. |
48 years | John Lewis Gay | Berea, Kentucky | Served from 1910 to 1958. |
47 years, 11 months | Frank Kelly | Collingdale, Pennsylvania | Served from 1970 until his death on November 22, 2018. |
47 years, 115 days | Nicholas B. Blase | Niles, Illinois | Served from May 2, 1961 until his resignation on August 25, 2008.[9] |
44 years | Charles "Sonny" Penhale | Helena, Alabama | Served from 1968 to 2012. [10] |
44 years | Gerald H. Thompson | Fitzgerald, Georgia | Served from January 1, 1968 to January 1, 2012. |
43–44 years | Richard A. Mola | Elmwood Park, New Jersey | Served from 1972 until his death in 2016.[11] |
43 years, 0 days | Paul W. Cassidy | Parma Heights, Ohio | Served from January, 1958 to January, 2001.[12] |
42 years, 0 days | Tom Reid | Pearland, Texas | Served from 1978 to 1990 and 1993 to present. Will Retire in May, 2020. |
41 years, 146 days | Erastus Corning II | Albany, New York | Served from January 2, 1942 to May 28, 1983. |
40 years, 27 days | Joseph P. Riley, Jr. | Charleston, South Carolina | Served from December 15, 1975 to January 11, 2016.[13] |
39–40 years | Louis Bay 2nd | Hawthorne, New Jersey | Served from 1947 to 1987. |
39–40 years | Gary W. Starr | Middleburg Heights, Ohio | Entered office in 1981. |
37-38 years | James Eagan | Florissant, Missouri | Served from 1963 to 2000. |
37 years, 352 days | William W. Dickinson, Jr. | Wallingford, Connecticut | Entered office in 1984. |
35 years, 362 days | Orville L. Hubbard | Dearborn, Michigan | Served from 1942 to 1978. |
35 years, 54 days | Edward J. Zabrocki | Tinley Park, Illinois | Served from May 1, 1981 until his resignation in June, 2016. |
34-35 years | Willis Conner | Dexter, Missouri | Served for about 35 years.[14] |
34-35 years | Glendel Stephenson | Mebane, North Carolina | Served from 1975 to 1983 and 1993 to 2019.[15][16] |
33 years | Joseph Smith | East Newark, New Jersey | 1987-2020[17] |
32 Years | Shawn Hogan | Hornell, New York | Served from 1985 to 2017. |
30 years, 33 days | Frank Hague | Jersey City, New Jersey | Served from 1917 to 1947. |
30 years | Emmett Dofner, Jr. | McClelland, Iowa | Served from 1987 until his death on May 2, 2017.[18] |
29-30 years | James A. Anzaldi | Clifton, New Jersey | Entered office in 1990. |
29 years, 354 days | Daniel R. Brooks | North College Hill, Ohio | Served from January 1, 1984 until his resignation on December 21, 2013[19] |
29 years, 201 days | Dr. LeRoy G. Suire | Erath, Louisiana | Served from 1961 to 1990. |
29 years, 39 days | Willie Oswalt | Lake City, Georgia | Served from 1989 to 2018. |
28 years, 321 days | Arnold Klentz | West Allis, Wisconsin | Served from April 18, 1944 until his death on March 5, 1973.[20] [21][Notes 2] |
28 years, 150 days | Don Plusquellic | Akron, Ohio | Served from January 1, 1987 until his resignation on May 31, 2015. |
28 years, 0 days | Henry Maier | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Served from 1960 to 1988.[22] |
28 years | Walter A. Scott | Jackson, Mississippi | Served from 1917 to 1945.[23] |
27 years, 364 days | Stephen R. Reed | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania | Served from 1982 to 2010. |
27 years, 0 days | Don Robart | Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio | Served from 1986 to 2013. |
26 years | Manuel Lamela Abreu | Quebradillas, Puerto Rico | Served from 1918 to 1944. |
Notes[]
- ^ The date of inauguration for Mayor John Coyne is not clear. It is clear that his successor, , took office in January 2000. References appear to confuse the 1999 election defeat with the day he left office. Most references state that he served 52 years, some from 1947-1999, a few from 1948 to 1999, and others from 1948 to 2000.
- ^ Both sources agree that Klentz was inaugurated in 1944; West Allis gives a date of April 18. West Allis inaccurately gives Klentz's death date as March 1971, whereas the contemporary source cited gives it as March 5, 1973.
References[]
- ^ "Mayor - William D. Tate | Grapevine, TX - Official Website". www.grapevinetexas.gov. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
- ^ "Our Mayor | Elizabeth, NJ". www.elizabethnj.org.
- ^ "15 mayors in major cities that have served as long -- or longer -- than Cleveland's Frank Jackson". cleveland. November 9, 2017.
- ^ "Charles E. Long - View Obituary & Service Information". Charles E. Long Obituary.
- ^ "Man Believed to Be New Jersey's Longest-Serving Mayor Dies", Associated Press, April 13, 2015.[dead link]
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ Iallonardo, Tony (November 15, 1999). "U.S. Has New "Longest-Serving Mayor". United States Conference of Mayors. Archived from the original on 2009-04-13. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
- ^ Smith, Tierra (June 29, 2020). "Mayor of Stafford, the longest-serving mayor in the nation, dies at 79". KPRC.
- ^ Schneider, Andrew (2012). Nick Blase: The Prince of Niles, Illinois. Charleston, SC: The History Press. ISBN 9781609495497.
- ^ Friday, Alec Etheredge Email the author Published 10:06 am; January 22; 2021 (2021-01-22). "'He bled Helena': Former Helena Mayor Sonny Penhale dies at 89". Shelby County Reporter. Retrieved 2021-03-10.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- ^ "Richard Mola Obituary (2016) - Elmwood Park, NJ - The Record/Herald News". www.legacy.com.
- ^ Segall, Grant; Dealer, The Plain (July 11, 2013). "Mayor Paul W. Cassidy led Parma Heights for 43 years: news obituary". cleveland.
- ^ Seabrook, Andrea (January 19, 2008), Charleston Mayor Reflects on 30 Years in Office, NPR, retrieved April 29, 2015
- ^ "Missouri Obituary and Death Notice Archive". Retrieved 2021-04-13.
- ^ "Glendel Stephenson, Mayor - City of Mebane". cityofmebane.com. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ Williams, Jessica. "Stephenson to retire after 35 years as Mebane's mayor". The Times-News. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- ^ "Grilo takes over for Hudson's longest-serving mayor". New Jersey Globe. January 5, 2020.
- ^ "Emmett E. Dofner, Jr. Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information". www.cutleroneill.com. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
- ^ Evans, Brad (December 17, 2013), North College Hill mayor resigns unexpectedly, retrieved December 18, 2020
- ^ Muchka, Albert (2003). West Allis. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing. p. 57. ISBN 0-7385-3183-9.
- ^ "Fond Du Lac Reporter Newspaper Archives March 06, 1973 Page 8". newspaperarchive.com. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ^ "Maier Ends 28 Years As Milwaukee`s Mayor on April 21, 1988". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
- ^ "Hattiesburg American from Hattiesburg, Mississippi on June 28, 1963 · 2". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- Lists of longest serving people by occupation
- Lists of people by time in office
- Lists of mayors of places in the United States