Fitch Robertson (February 12, 1896 – March 5, 1956) was Mayor of

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, United States, from 1943 to 1947. He was born February 12, 1896, in

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 111,876 at the 2020 United States Census, making Pueblo the ninth most populo ...

. Robertson was a graduate of the

Colorado School of Mines The Colorado School of Mines, informally called Mines, is a public research university in Golden, Colorado, founded in 1874. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, and mathematics, with a focus on en ...

. He served during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in a U.S. Army engineering battalion. He came to Berkeley in 1929. He married Myla Kenworthy, with whom he had four children. A member of the

BPOE The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City. History The Elks began in 1868 as a soci ...

Berkeley Elks Lodge # 1002. After the City Manager announced his intention to resign as of January 15, 1947, the Berkeley City Council chose Mayor Robertson to replace him which it did on January 20. The Vice Mayor, 80-year-old Carrie Hoyt then assumed the office of Mayor to finish out Robertson's term, thus becoming Berkeley's first female mayor. Robertson died at his

Walnut Creek, California Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek s ...

home on March 5, 1956.

References

* ''Berkeley Gazette'', March 6, 1956
''The Voter''
newsletter of the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville, December 2003-January 2004 issue 1896 births Politicians from Pueblo, Colorado Colorado School of Mines alumni United States Army personnel of World War I Mayors of Berkeley, California 1956 deaths 20th-century American politicians {{California-mayor-stub