Neal Shaw Blaisdell served as Mayor of Honolulu from 1955 to 1969 as a member of the Hawaii Republican Party. As chief executive of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, he oversaw one of the largest construction booms in city and county history, working closely with Governor John A. Burns. Blaisdell was the sitting mayor when Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959.

Jerome Patrick Cavanagh was an American politician who served as the mayor of Detroit, Michigan from 1962 to 1970. Initially a popular figure, his reputation was seriously damaged by the city's 1967 riots, the most destructive of any U.S. city that decade. He was the first mayor to reside at the Manoogian Mansion, donated to the city by the industrial baron Alex Manoogian.