Kovach, Beutter, Rea, and the caucus of 2010

1979 – today

Robert Kovach, 1980–1983: The Democrat Robert "Bob" Kovach won the election of 1979 and served one term — in the Story of Mishawaka section's summary, the only Democratic mayor of Mishawaka between Margaret Prickett's victory in 1963 and the present day. His single term divides the two long Republican mayoralties that frame the modern city.

Robert C. Beutter, 1984–2003: Beutter, a Republican, was elected in November 1983 and held the office for five terms — twenty years, 1984 to 2003, the longest mayoralty in Mishawaka's record. He died on 2 January 2020. The city's own financial reports bracket his era's end: the comprehensive annual financial report for 2004 already lists the government of his successor.

Jeff Rea, 2004–2010: Rea succeeded Beutter at the start of 2004 and resigned the office in August 2010 to head the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce — a mayor leaving City Hall not at an election but for the region's business chair, and setting up the one succession in the modern record that no election decided.

Dave Wood, from 7 September 2010: The vacancy Rea left was filled as Indiana law provides: the Republican precinct committeemen of the city chose the successor in caucus, and their choice was Dave Wood — a councilman of eleven or twelve years from the Second District, as the Story of Mishawaka section carries it (the city's 2004 financial report already lists David Allen Wood among the council members, on a term running 2004–2007), and a vice president of 1st Source Bank before that. Wood was sworn in on 7 September 2010, then won the office at the election of 2011 and was re-elected in 2015, 2019 and 2023. The city's financial report for 2021 names David A. Wood as mayor in its schedule of officials, and the Story of Mishawaka section counts him the city's twenty-first mayor.

The count, checked: That number can be tested against the succession this section has assembled, and the test is printed rather than the answer assumed. The record here names sixteen mayors before Wood: Fisher, Mix, Frank, Herzog, Gaylor, Dodge, Petro, Castleman, Brady, Walton, Doyle, Canfield, Prickett, Kovach, Beutter and Rea. If Wood is the twenty-first, twenty men and women held the office before him, and four more officeholders stand inside the succession's open stretches — the elections of 1925 and 1934, and the unsettled starts of the 1940s and 1950s — than the sources read for this section can name, counting each officeholder once. The arithmetic agrees with everything else the record shows; it does not supply the four names, and this section does not pretend otherwise.

Sources:

1. The Story of Mishawaka section fragment of this build — Kovach's victory of 1979 and single term; Beutter elected November 1983, five terms and twenty years, died 2 January 2020; Rea 2004 to August 2010 and the Chamber resignation; Wood's council years and bank post, the precinct-committee choice, the swearing of 7 September 2010, the elections of 2011–2023, and the count of twenty-first mayor.
2. City of Mishawaka, Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (2004) — schedule of officials listing David Allen Wood among the members of the Common Council, term 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2007.
3. City of Mishawaka, Annual Financial Report for the year ended 31 December 2021 — schedule of officials: Mayor David A. Wood; City Clerk Deborah S. Block; City Controller Rebecca S. Maguire; President of the Common Council Gregg Hixenbaugh.