George Latimer

Who is George Latimer?

George Latimer was the mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, the state's capital city, from 1976 until 1990. A member of the DFL and a labor lawyer by profession, the bearded Latimer was known for his redevelopment of St. Paul's downtown core, serving as mayor during a period when St. Paul's population was declining somewhat as some residents moved to suburban areas while the city's ethnic diversity increased as, among others, Hmong refugees from Vietnam and Laos resettled in Saint Paul.

Latimer attended Saint Michael's College and Columbia Law School and practiced law in Saint Paul from 1963 until he was elected mayor. Latimer is of Lebanese ancestry.

In 1987, Latimer served as a selection committee member for the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence.

After his mayoral tenure, he served as dean of Hamline University's law school from 1990 to 1993 and as a special adviser to Henry Cisneros, President Bill Clinton's Housing and Urban Development secretary, from 1993 to 1995.

An expert on urban affairs and urban development, Latimer has lectured on those topics as a visiting professor of Urban Studies and Geography at Macalester College in Saint Paul since 1996.