James Fred Hofheinz (born March 15, 1938) is an American lawyer and politician who served as mayor of
Houston, Texas, from 1974 to 1978.
Hofheinz's father,
Roy
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
, was mayor of the city in the 1950s.
Hofheinz graduated from
Lamar High School in Houston, where he was a championship debater and also lettered in track and field. He attended the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, earning a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
summa cum laude in 1960 and continued at Texas to earn both
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...
and
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
degrees in economics.
Hofheinz earned a
Juris Doctor from the
University of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...
in 1964. In 1974 Hofheinz was named one of "200 Faces for the Future" by ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''.
After his term as mayor, Hofheinz practiced law in Houston. He also served as a board member at Lucas Energy, an independent crude oil and gas company. In 1971, Hofheinz co-founded the closed circuit television company
Top Rank
Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Since its founding, Top Rank has promoted many world class fighters, including Muh ...
.
Reuters press release
/ref> Hofheinz ran again for mayor in 1989, but was defeated by the incumbent mayor, Kathy Whitmire
Kathryn Jean Whitmire (née Niederhofer; born August 15, 1946) is an American politician, businesswoman, and accountant best known as the first woman to serve as Mayor of Houston, serving for five consecutive two-year terms from 1982 to 1991. Fro ...
.
In 1994, Hofheinz was the sole shareholder of Top Rank when it attempted to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...
and move them to New Orleans.[Fred Hofheinz profile](_blank)
References
External links
* Hofheinz, Mayor Fred and Frank Michel
Mayor Fred Hofheinz Oral History
Houston Oral History Project, February 11, 2008.
1938 births
Living people
People from Houston
Mayors of Houston
Lamar High School (Houston, Texas) alumni
University of Houston alumni
Texas lawyers
Texas Democrats
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