Jan Coggeshall

Jan Coggeshall (1935 – 19 June 2017) was a mayor of Galveston, Texas.

Jan Coggeshall was born in 1935 in the state of New York. She was raised in Rochester, New York. After gaining a degree in Mathematics from Wellesley College in the 1970s, she followed her family to Galveston, Texas. She first engaged in public service with the League of Women Voters, and chaired the Design of the City Committee. Galvestonians elected Coggeshall for city council in 1979, her first elected position. Five years later, she was elected as the first female mayor of Galveston. In 1987, ahe survived the city’s first recall election.[1] According to Texas Monthly, local voters protested a decision by the mayor and city council to spend $10 million in federal transit funds on a trolley to shuttle people between downtown Galveston and the beach.[2]

In 1989, she ended her tenure as the city’s top executive in order to run for Galveston County Commissioner, though she lost the county election.[3] Coggeshall was a board member of the Galveston Ethics Board for two and a half decades, and she served for the same length of time on the Galveston Housing Finance Corporation. She volunteered for education groups, co-founding the Galveston College Foundation.[1] She was a trustee for Galveston’s Rosenberg Library.[3]

Coggeshall was married to a Galveston surgeon.[1]

Coggeshall died of cancer on 19 June 2017.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ferguson, John Wayne (19 June 2017). "Jan Coggeshall, Galveston's first female mayor, dies". The Daily News. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  2. ↑ Curtis, Tom (July 1987). "Trolley Folly". Texas Monthly. p. 176. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 "Jan Coggeshall, Galveston's first female mayor, dies at 81". Houston Chronicle. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
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