Kinjiro Matsudaira (松平 欽次郎, Matsudaira Kinjirō, September 13, 1885 – October 1963) was an American inventor and politician who served as the mayor of
Edmonston, Maryland in 1927 and 1943.
Biography
Matsudaira was born in
Pennsylvania on September 13, 1885, as the son of a Japanese father,
Tadaatsu,[1] and an American mother, Carrie Sampson. He was a descendant of the
Fujii-Matsudaira clan.[2] After his father's death, he lived with his maternal grandparents in
Virginia. On May 1, 1912, Matsudaira filed for
U.S. Patent 1,111,912 concerning the functions of a thermometric fire-detector.[3] The patent was granted to him on September 29, 1914.[4]
Matsudaira was elected as the mayor of
Edmonston, Maryland, in the summer of 1927.[6] The election reportedly made him the first Asian American mayor in the United States.[7][8][9][10] He was re-elected as mayor of Edmonston in 1943.[11][12]