Mildred Schwab

Mildred Schwab (January 9, 1917 — c. January 13, 1999) was an attorney and politician from Portland, Oregon, in the United States. She served as a City Commissioner from 1973 to 1986;^[1] she was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Neil Goldschmidt was elected mayor, and was reelected three times.^[1] Her brother, Herbert M. Schwab, served on the Oregon Court of Appeals.^[1]

She was born to Jewish immigrants and grew up in northeast Portland,^[2] at the poor end of lower middle class.^[3] She attend Grant High School and the Northwestern School of Business. She was one of the first women to study law, and graduated from Northwestern College of Law (at Lewis & Clark College) in 1939 and qualified for the Oregon Bar. She worked as a lawyer until her appointment to the Portland City Council in January 1973.^[2]

In 1971, Portland still had two lunch spots closed to women. Schwab organized a sit-in at Perkins' Pub (in the basement of Lipman-Wolfe) which succeeded in opening the establishment to women. She also was part of a small group (also including Gretchen Kafoury) who opened City Club of Portland to women. She was the first woman nominated to be a Portland Rose Festival ambassador (or Royal Rosarian), though she declined the honor.^[2]

Part of her time as city commissioner was in charge of the police and fire departments—Portland's equivalent of police commissioner^[2]—for which she received great support.^[3]

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