The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
Mayor of Fort Wayne
On the record
Took office on Baals's death.
Meyers was the city’s controller when Baals died, and succeeded automatically — a reluctant mayor, by the local history’s account, who finished the term, won election in his own right in November 1955, and declined to run again. His five years were the annexation years: the city grew from 18 to 35 square miles between 1954 and 1959. He outlived the chair by decades in public service, sitting as an Allen County Superior Court judge from 1971 to 1985.
Robert E. Meyers (23 December 1913 – 26 March 2007) came to the office by death and special election: when Mayor Harry W. Baals died in office on 9 May 1954, Meyers won the special election to succeed him. A lawyer by training, he called himself a reluctant mayor — he had gone to school to be a lawyer, not a politician — and declined to run for re-election. His administration led the city's great postwar annexation drive, more than doubling Fort Wayne's area from 18 square miles to 35 square miles between 1954 and 1959. He returned to the bench afterward, serving as an Allen County Superior Court judge from 1971 until his retirement in 1985.
Find them on this page
- § 04 — the mayoral roster
Roster cross-checked between the City of Fort Wayne’s official mayors page and the full dated list — sources printed under the roster in § 04; Wikipedia, "Robert Meyers (politician).". Further sources: The Local Fort Wayne (2024), drawing on the Paul Helmke Papers, ACPL.