Roy Hofheinz

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Roy Mark Hofheinz (April 10, 1912–November 22, 1982), popularly known as Judge Hofheinz, was mayor of the city of Houston, Texas from 1953 to 1955. He previously served as the County Judge of Harris County, Texas. A flamboyant and successful orator, broadcaster, developer and sportsman, he was part of the group that brought a Major League Baseball franchise (which became the Houston Astros) to Houston, as well as built the Harris County Domed Stadium, known as the Astrodome, the first large covered baseball and football facility in the world. Known in his youth as the "boy Mayor," at 23 he was the youngest county administrator in the state. He acted as campaign manager for Lyndon B. Johnson during his rise to the position of Congressman and then Senator. After World War II he pioneered FM radio and built a network of radio and television stations in the Texas Gulf coast area, and made a business of salvaging the slag from steelmaking, crushing it and selling it as roadbuilding aggregate. Later, after the "Dome" was built, he worked with engineers at Monsanto Corporation to develop Astroturf, an imitation grass now widely used where natural grass does not flourish. In the 1960's he purchased, along with Israel and Irving Feld, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, later selling his interest to Mattel, Inc. His giant southwest Houston development project, which he called Astrodomain, and which included the first major theme park in coastal Texas, Astroworld, came on hard times during the recession of the early 1970's. His son, Fred Hofheinz, served as mayor of Houston in the 1970s.