Fletcher Bowron

Fletcher Bowron (born August 13, 1887 in Poway , California , †  September 11, 1968 in Los Angeles , California) was an American politician . Between 1938 and 1953 he was mayor of Los Angeles.

Career

Fletcher Bowron attended Los Angeles High School and then was enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley . After a subsequent law degree at the University of Southern California and his admission to the bar in 1917, he began to work in this profession. He had previously been a newspaper reporter for some time. During the First World War he served in the United States Army , first in the artillery and then in the intelligence service.

Between 1923 and 1925 he was Deputy State Corporations Commissioner . He then served as Executive Secretary on the staff of Governor Friend Richardson until 1926 . From 1926 to 1938 he was a judge in the Superior Court of California. His political party affiliation is indicated differently in the sources. The figures vary between the Democratic and Republican parties .

In 1938 the Mayor of Los Angeles, Frank L. Shaw , was removed from office prematurely on allegations of corruption and a new election was ordered. Bowron was a fellow opposition candidate to Shaw and was elected as such as the new mayor. He held this office after several re-elections between September 26, 1938 and July 1, 1953. After taking office, he pushed back the corruption prevailing under his predecessor in the city. Among other things, the city's police chief, who was also considered corrupt, was deposed. He also took action against prostitution and gambling. Los Angeles, like other American cities, had been affected by the events of World War II since 1941 . During this time Bowron defended the legally controversial internment of Japanese-born Americans . In 1943 there was the first smog alarm in Los Angeles . During the war, the city profited from the arms industry. This led to an increase in the population. After the war, the infrastructure had to be adapted to these changes. Among other things, the road network was expanded and the water supply improved. The international airport was also expanded. During his final tenure, Fletcher Bowron became increasingly unpopular. The reason was, on the one hand, tax increases, which were necessary to expand the infrastructure, but burdened the residents, and, on the other hand, the slowly returning corruption among the police. As a result, the mayor was not re-elected in 1953.

Between 1957 and 1962, Fletcher Bowron was again a Superior Court judge . He died on September 11, 1968 in a car accident caused by a heart attack as a driver.

Web links

• Fletcher Bowron in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard
• Fletcher Bowron in the nndb (English)
• The Mayors of Los Angeles