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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).
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 Carolyn Goodman, who has been mayor of Las Vegas since July 6, 2011.
Years | Name | Municipality | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
49 years, 11 days | Margaret M. Doud | Mackinac Island, Michigan | Entered office on April 14, 1975. [1] |
48 years, 111 days | Robert Heidenescher | Dupont, Ohio | Entered office on January 5, 1976. [2] |
47 years, 360 days | William D. Tate | Grapevine, Texas | Entered office on May 1, 1973. Served May 1, 1973 – May 1, 1985 and May 1, 1988–present [3] |
47–48 years | Lamar Scroggs | Oakwood, Georgia | Entered office in 1976. [4] |
47–48 years | Harold Rainwater | Wilmore, Kentucky | Entered office in 1976. [5] |
48 years, 115 days | Rutledge B. Leland, III | McClellanville, South Carolina | Entered office in 1976. [6] |
46 years, 170 days | Robert Chatfield | Prospect, Connecticut | Entered office on November 7, 1977. |
46–47 years | Phil Williams | McLemoresville, Tennessee | Entered office in 1977. [7] He is the longest serving mayor in Tennessee history. |
44–45 years | Marvin Johnson | Independence, Minnesota | Entered office in 1979. |
42–43 years | Mary Hawkins Butler | Madison, Mississippi | Entered office in 1981. |
42 years, 357 days | Jeffery D. Schielke | Batavia, Illinois | Entered office on May 4, 1981. [8] |
42 years, 360 days | Gerald R. Bennett | Palos Hills, Illinois | Entered Office in 1981 [9] |
42 years, 294 days | Mark Anthony McClure | Danville, West Virginia | Entered office on July 6, 1981. |
41 years, 176 days | James V. Bender Jr | Pollocksville, North Carolina | Entered office on November 1, 1982. |
41 years, 115 days | William "Bill" McIntosh | Moultrie, Georgia | Entered office in 1983. |
40 years, 114 days | William W. Dickinson Jr. | Wallingford, Connecticut | Entered office in 1984. Will retire at the end of his term in late 2023. |
38 years, 355 days | Duane Dawson | Milan, Illinois | Entered office on May 6, 1985. [10] |
38–39 years | Louie Davis | Waldo, Florida | Entered office in 1985. |
38 years | Dennis M. Clough | Westlake, Ohio | Entered office in 1986. [11] |
36 years, 266 days | Carlos López Rivera | Dorado, Puerto Rico | Entered office on August 3, 1987. |
33 years, 171 days | Dr. Ravi Bhasker | Socorro, New Mexico | Entered office on November 6, 1990. |
33 years, 299 days | Richard Turner | Weehawken, New Jersey | Entered office July 1, 1990 [12] |
33 years, 115 days | James M. Cahill | New Brunswick, New Jersey | Entered office on January 1, 1991. [13] |
31 years, 115 days | J. Christian Bollwage | Elizabeth, New Jersey | Entered office on January 1, 1993. [14] |
30 years, 113 days | Dean J. Mazzarella | Leominster, Massachusetts | Entered office on January 3, 1994. |
A list of mayors in order of their total length of service. (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, until his death on December 4, 2012. [15] |
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. [16] |
58 years, 233 days | Robert Linn | Beaver, Pennsylvania | Served from January 2, 1946, to August 22, 2004. |
60 years, 95 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, 270 days | Robert L. Butler | Marion, Illinois | Served from May 6, 1963 [17] until his resignation on January 31, 2018. [18] |
52 years | Gerald Calabrese | Cliffside Park, New Jersey | Served from 1961 to 1963 and 1965 to 2015. [19] [20] |
52 years | Frank Caliper | Colp, Illinois | Served from 1935 until his death on March 28, 1987. |
52 years, 0 days | John M. Coyne | Brooklyn, Ohio | Served from 1948 to January 2000. [21] [Notes 1] |
51 years, 102 days | Donald Stephens | Rosemont, Illinois | First Mayor of Rosemont. Served from village's incorporation in 1956 to 2007. |
51 years, 361 days | Robert M. Blais | Lake George, New York | Served from April 5, 1971, to April 1, 2023. [22] [23] |
51 years, 182 days | Dock Hulett Gabbert | Derma, Mississippi | Served from July 1, 1969, to December 30, 2020. [24] |
50 years, 298 days | Leonard Scarcella | Stafford, Texas | Served from September 4, 1969, until his death on June 28, 2020. [25] |
50 years, 0 days | Leonard T. Connors | Surf City, New Jersey | Served from 1966 to January 5, 2016. |
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. [26] |
47 years, 104 days | Milt Kramer | Manchester, Iowa | Served from September 19, 1974, to January 1, 2022. |
43 years, 275 days | Noel B. Cummings | Hodgkins, Illinois | Served from 1979 until his formal retirement was announced on Oct. 3, 2022 at the age of 95. [27] |
46 years, 364 days | H. Ford Gravitt | Cumming, Georgia | Served from January 1, 1971, to December 31, 2017. |
46 years, 222 days | Joseph Sieb | Norridge, Illinois | Served from November 14, 1951, until his death on June 23, 1998. [28] |
44 years | Charles "Sonny" Penhale | Helena, Alabama | Served from 1968 to 2012. [29] |
44 years | Thomas M. Tartt | Livingston, Alabama | Served from 1980 to February 22, 2024. |
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. [30] |
43 years, 0 days | Paul W. Cassidy | Parma Heights, Ohio | Served from January, 1958 to January, 2001. [31] |
42 years, 0 days | Tom Reid | Pearland, Texas | Served from 1978 to 1990 and 1993 to May, 2020. |
42–43 years | Gary W. Starr | Middleburg Heights, Ohio | Entered office in 1981. |
41 years, 146 days | Erastus Corning II | Albany, New York | Served from January 2, 1942, to May 28, 1983. |
41 years | Glenn L. Sisco | Kinnelon, New Jersey | Served from 1969 to 2010. [32] |
40 years | George C. Clanton | Tappahannock, Virginia | Served from 1948 to 1988 |
40 years, 27 days | Joseph P. Riley Jr. | Charleston, South Carolina | Served from December 15, 1975, to January 11, 2016. [33] |
39–40 years | Louis Bay 2nd | Hawthorne, New Jersey | Served from 1947 to 1987. |
40 years, 114 days | William W. Dickinson Jr. | Wallingford, Connecticut | Entered office in 1984. |
39 years, 100 days | John Ferrero | City of Industry, California | Served from Industry's incorporation in 1957 till his death on September 26, 1996. [34] |
37–38 years | James Eagan | Florissant, Missouri | Served from 1963 to 2000. |
36 years | Randall Ramsey | Parma, Missouri | Served from 1962 to 1974 and from 1991 to 2015. [35] |
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. [36] |
34–35 years | Glendel Stephenson | Mebane, North Carolina | Served from 1975 to 1983 and 1993 to 2019. [37] [38] |
33 years, 10 months | David W. Smith | Newark, California | Served from March 1978 to December 2011 [39] [40] |
33 years, 3 months | Joseph Barabe | Mellen, Wisconsin | Served from April 1987 to April 2001 and April 2003 to July 2022 |
33 years | Richard A. Nowack | Oak Grove, Illinois | Served from May 1978 until his death on September 20, 2011. [41] |
33 years | Joseph Smith | East Newark, New Jersey | Served from 1987 to 2020 [42] |
32 years | Anthony Vacco | Evergreen Park, Illinois | Served from 1969 to 2001. |
32 years | Shawn Hogan | Hornell, New York | Served from 1985 to 2017. |
32 years | Kenneth J. Sims | Euclid, Ohio | Served from 1938 until his retirement in June 1970 [43] |
31 years, 6 months | James A. Anzaldi | Clifton, New Jersey | Entered office July 1, 1990 and left office on December 31, 2022 [44] [45] |
30 years, 33 days | Frank Hague | Jersey City, New Jersey | Served from 1917 to 1947. |
30 years | Richard Homrighausen | Dover, Ohio | Served from 1992 until his suspension from office in May 2022 |
30 years | Emmett Dofner Jr. | McClelland, Iowa | Served from 1987 until his death on May 2, 2017. [46] |
29 years, 354 days | Daniel R. Brooks | North College Hill, Ohio | Served from January 1, 1984, until his resignation on December 21, 2013 [47] |
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. [48] [49] [Notes 2] |
28 years, 150 days | Don Plusquellic | Akron, Ohio | Served from January 1, 1987, until his resignation on May 31, 2015. |
28 years | Paul Amico | Secaucus, New Jersey | Served from 1964 to 1992. [50] |
28 years, 0 days | Henry Maier | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Served from 1960 to 1988. [51] |
28 years | Walter A. Scott | Jackson, Mississippi | Served from 1917 to 1945. [52] |
28 years | Thomas Gerard Dunn | Elizabeth, New Jersey | 1964 to 1992. Longest-serving mayor of a city of more than 100,000 people. [53] |
28 years | George H. Lysle | McKeesport, Pennsylvania | Served from 1914 to 1942. [54] |
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, 30 days | Miguel A. Pulido | Santa Ana, California | Served from 1994 to 2020. |
26 years | Manuel Lamela Abreu | Quebradillas, Puerto Rico | Served from 1918 to 1944. |
When he first took office on May 4, 1981, Schielke was the youngest mayor in Batavia's history at age 32.
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It was April 5, 1971 when he presided over his first Village Board meeting, shortly after taking his oath of office as mayor.
He (Perry) began his new position on April 1, after serving on the Lake George Village Board of Trustees
Thomas G. Dunn...had served as mayor of the largely working-class city for 28 years, but he was defeated in his own party's primary in June 1992. Still, his tenure earned him the distinction as the nation's longest-serving mayor of a city of more than 100,000 people.