Raymond Tucker

Raymond Tucker (December 4, 1896 – November 23, 1970) was the thirty-eighth mayor of St. Louis, serving from 1953 to 1965.

Personal life and early career

Tucker was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was a 1913 graduate of St. Louis University High School. He later received degrees from Columbia University and Washington University. He married the former Mary Edythe Leiber in 1928 and they raised a son and daughter. From 1921 to 1934, he taught mechanical engineering at Washington University and was chairman of the department from 1921 to 1951.

Tucker served in Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann's administration from 1934 to 1937, during which time he served as City Smoke Commissioner. From 1939 to 1941, he was secretary to Mayor Dickmann's Survey and Audit Committee which sponsored the Griffenhagen Report on St. Louis City Government. In part of 1940 and 1941, he was Director of Public Safety.

Tucker was a member of the committee appointed to write the City's first Civil Service Ordinance in 1940. He headed the 1949 Charter Board of Freeholders whose plan was defeated at the polls in August, 1950. St. Louis' Civil Defense was his responsibility from January 1951 to February 1953. The St. Louis Newspaper Guild gave him the "Page One Award" for civic achievement in 1952. In 1956, he received the St. Louis Award for rallying citizens to work for civic improvement.