Ben Boo, born January 21, 1925 in St. Paul, served in the military and fought in both World War II and the Korean War. He was elected mayor on April 4, 1967 and served until 1975. Boo boosted Duluth tourism with the creation of the local ski hill Spirit Mountain. He was a very public figure, traveling through Europe and appearing on American television to talk about common urban issues. After his tenure he served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1984-1993 and worked as executive director of the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District. He and his wife Mary have six children.
A native of Duluth, Gary Doty was born on February 5, 1948 and worked as a teacher and coach in the Duluth public schools. In 1975 he was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, and he served on several other boards until his election as mayor on November 5, 1991. During his 12 years in office, Doty worked to rebuild streets and sewers throughout the city. He was also a strong promoter of the Great Lakes Aquarium. The socially conservative and fiscally moderate mayor retired in 2004 and lives with his wife Marcia and their three daughters.
Herb Bergson holds the distinction of being the first mayor of Duluth to have already served as mayor of Superior, Wisconsin across the bay. He was born on September 16, 1956 in Duluth but became a police patrolman in Superior in 1977. He later served two terms as mayor there, returning to law enforcement in 1995. After unsuccessfully running for mayor of Duluth, Bergson was elected to Duluth's city council in 2001. He subsequently won the mayor's seat in 2003. During his single term, Bergson pledged to help Duluth's homeless and supported the gay community. He and his wife Jacqui have two adopted sons and have hosted many foster children.
John Fedo, born in 1950, was one of Duluth's most active mayors. Elected in 1979, Fedo helped revitalize the lakefront, increased Duluth tourism, and launched a number of skywalk extensions, park renovations, and freeway expansions. In 1988 he was indicted on 23 charges of various financial crimes, but that didn't stop him from being remembered as one of Duluth's best mayors. He married twice and had four children with each woman. Fedo served until 1992, after which he became city administrator of Hibbing, MN.
Born April 17, 1940 in Duluth, Robert Beaudin made jobs and the economy his primary focus. Having worked for U.S. Steel at the Morgan Park plant in Duluth, he was all too aware of the effects of that plant's closure on the people of Duluth. He became mayor on January 2, 1975 when Ben Boo resigned, and he won the next election in 1976. He brought Duluth a $6 million water filtration plant as well as Cirrus Aviation, now the city's largest provider of manufacturing jobs. Beaudin died in January 2013, survived by five children and five grandchildren.
Charles Hinman Graves was a colonel in the army before his term as mayor in 1882-1883. He went on to serve in the Minnesota Legislature before his death in 1928. Marcus B. Cullum, born in 1856, served as Duluth's mayor from 1904-1907 and again from 1910-1911. He began work on what is now Leif Erikson Park, and was later a strong figure in the Minnesota Legislature before he died in 1932. Clinton Markell was Duluth's second mayor, elected in 1870. After his tenure he continued in the grain and mining businesses until his death in 1912.