Gordon Stanley Clinton (April 13, 1920 – November 19, 2011) was the 43rd mayor of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. After defeating incumbent Mayor Allen Pomeroy in a close election in 1956, Clinton served two terms, from 1956 to 1964. Upon taking office, Clinton established the Metropolitan Problems Advisory Committee, headed by local community leader John Ellis, to suggest approaches to dealing with chronic local and regional problems. During his administration, Clinton tackled issues as divergent as regional governance, international trade, and discrimination in housing. He was a Republican. Clinton actively supported development of enabling legislation used by the Washington State Legislature to allow creation of regional governments, leading to the formation of the

Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle King County Metro, officially the King County Metro Transit Department and often shortened to Metro, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle. It is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in t ...

(Metro) in 1958. Clinton also established Seattle's first sister city relationship (with

Kobe, Japan Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whi ...

) in 1956, supported the development of the current

Seattle Center Seattle Center is an arts, educational, tourism and entertainment center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Spanning an area of 74 acres (30 ha), it was originally built for the 1962 World's Fair. Its landmark feature is the tall Space Needle ...

site for the

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

in 1962, and fought illegal gambling in Seattle. In 1963, Clinton created the 12-member Seattle Human Rights Commission to promote equality and understanding among Seattle resident

References

External links

Gordon S. Clinton
at historylink.org
Guide to the Mayor Gordon Stanley Clinton Photographs 1959

Guide to the Mayor Gordon Clinton Election Scrapbooks 1956–1960
1920 births 2011 deaths Mayors of Seattle Methodists from Washington (state) Washington (state) Republicans {{Washington-mayor-stub