Roman Stanley Gribbs was the Mayor of Detroit from 1970 to 1974. Later, Gribbs served as a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals

Michigan Court of Appeals

The Michigan Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court of the state of Michigan. It was created by the Michigan Constitution of 1963, and commenced operations in 1965...

.

Biography

Roman Gribbs was born in Detroit on December 29, 1925. He was raised on a farm near Capac, Michigan

Capac, Michigan

Capac is a village in Mussey Township, St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,775 at the 2000 census.-History:Capac was founded and platted by a group of men from Romeo headed by George R. Funstan and Judge DeWitt C. Walker in 1857. The judge named it after Huayna...

. After graduating from high school in 1944, Gribbs served in the Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 until 1948. He graduated from the University of Detroit in 1952 with a degree in economics and accounting, and received a law degree from the same institution in 1954. He was an instructor at the university from 1955 to 1956, and became an assistant prosecutor in 1956, a position he held until 1964. He entered private practice in 1964, and ran for a seat as a Recorder's Court judge in 1966, but lost.

In 1968, Gribbs was appointed sheriff

Sheriff

A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

 of Wayne County

Wayne County, Michigan

-History:Wayne County was one of the first counties formed when the Northwest Territory was organized. It was named for the American general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. It originally encompassed the entire area of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, as well as small sections that are now part of northern...

, later winning a full four-year term. However, in 1969 he was elected mayor of Detroit

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, defeating opponent Richard H. Austin

Richard H. Austin

Richard H. Austin was the first African American to hold a state-wide elected position in Michigan. Austin served as the Michigan Secretary of State....

 who later became Michigan Secretary of State

Michigan Secretary of State

The Secretary of State is the third-ranking official in the U.S. state of Michigan and one of four great offices of state. As the name implies, the officeholder was originally responsible for much of state government, but now the duties are similar to those of the other 47 secretaries of states...

. In 1973, Gribbs declined to seek re-election and was replaced by Coleman Young

Coleman Young

Coleman Alexander Young served as mayor of Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan from 1974 to 1993. Young became the first African-American mayor of Detroit in the same week that Maynard Jackson became the first African-American mayor of Atlanta.-Pre-Mayoral career:Young was born in Tuscaloosa,...

who was elected Detroit's first African-American mayor in November of that year.

After leaving the mayor's office, Gribbs returned to private practice. Gribbs became a circuit court judge in 1975. He was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1982, upon which he served until his retirement in 2000. Gribbs currently resides in suburban Detroit, and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Piast Institute, a research center devoted to Polish and Polish American affairs.