Robert Lester Floyd (January 4, 1918 – May 14, 2007) was a U.S. politician best known as the youngest mayor of the

City of Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...

. Floyd was born on January 4, 1918, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Paul Leslie Floyd and Margaret Scott and moved to Miami as a child with his mother. He graduated from

Miami High School Miami Senior High School, also known as Miami High School, is a public high school located at 2450 SW 1st Street in Miami, Florida, and operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Founded in 1903, it is one of the oldest high school in Miami ...

and earned a degree from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. In 1939, he began to work as a special agent for the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

in Washington, D.C., while attending law school at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

. He earned his law degree in 1941 and left the FBI in 1943. He returned to Miami went into private practice. On September 4, 1946, he married Rose Marie Norcross and they had four children, James, Robert II, Edward and Rosemarie. At his death he also had seven grandchildren. In 1947, he ran for Mayor of the City of Miami and won at the age of 29. Upon his election, he was the city's first-ever Democratic mayor. He served as Commissioner of the City of Miami. In 1951 and 1953, he was elected to the

Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...

. In 1954 and 1960, he was elected as a Dade County court judge. In 1966, he served for one month as interim Dade County Sheriff before returning to private practice. He died in Miami in 2007 at the age of 89.

References

* ''THE MIAMI HERALD'', May 16, 2007, page 5B 1918 births 2007 deaths American people of Welsh descent Mayors of Miami University of Florida alumni Florida lawyers 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American lawyers Miami Senior High School alumni {{Miami-stub