{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use American English|date=December 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Roman Gribbs | image = Roman S. Gribbs (1).jpg | caption = Gribbs in 2010 | office = Judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals | term_start = January 1, 1983 | term_end = January 1, 2001 | predecessor = | successor = | order1 = 65th | office1 = Mayor of Detroit | term_start1 = January 6, 1970 | term_end1 = January 1, 1974 | predecessor1 = Jerome Cavanagh | successor1 = Coleman Young | order2 = 46th | office2 = President of the National League of Cities | term2 = 1973 | predecessor2 = Sam Massell | successor2 = Tom Bradley
| office3 = Wayne County Sheriff | term_start3 = 1968 | term_end3 = 1969 | predecessor3 = Peter L. Buback | successor3 = William Lucas | birth_name = Roman Stanley Gribbs | birth_date = {{birth date|1925|12|29|mf=y}} | birth_place = Detroit, Michigan, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|04|05|1925|12|29|mf=y}} | death_place = Northville, Michigan, U.S. | constituency = | party = Democratic | alma_mater = University of Detroit | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Katherine Stratis|1954|1982}} * {{marriage|Leola Young Barr|1990|2016}} }} | children = 5 | profession = | signature = | footnotes = |allegiance={{flagu|United States|1912}} |branch={{Dodseal|War}} United States Army |service_years=1944–1948 |rank= |battles=World War II }}
'''Roman Stanley Gribbs''' (December 29, 1925 – April 5, 2016) was an American attorney and politician who served as the mayor of Detroit from 1970 to 1974.<ref name="candswin">{{cite news|last=Simpson|first=Victor L.|title=Candidates win without 'law and order' issue|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qEQtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Pp8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=930,3484804&dq=mayor+roman+gribbs&hl=en|accessdate=28 July 2010|newspaper=Rock Hill Herald|date=6 November 1969|agency=AP}}</ref> Later, Gribbs served as a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals.<ref name="argpress">{{cite news|last=Benac|first=Nancy|title=Dem Victories Cost Women Their Seat on High Court|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=d1AiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NK0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=5608,232138&dq=roman-gribbs+appeals&hl=en|accessdate=28 July 2010|newspaper=Argus-Press|date=3 November 1982|agency=AP}}</ref> Gribbs was the last white mayor of the city, which was in the midst of becoming a majority-black city, until the election of Mike Duggan in 2013.
==Life and career== Gribbs was born in Detroit on December 29, 1925.<ref name = "bio">{{citation | title = 1999–2000 Michigan Manual | chapter = judges of the court of appeals | year = 1993 | publisher = Legislative Council, State of Michigan | page = [https://archive.org/details/michiganmanual00mich/page/585 585] | isbn = 1-878210-06-8 | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/michiganmanual00mich/page/585 }}</ref> He was raised on a farm near Capac, Michigan.<ref name = "wind">{{cite news | title = Meet Roman Gribbs, New Detroit Mayor | newspaper = The Windsor Star | date = Nov 5, 1969| url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=akM_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=olEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3697,1889619&dq=roman-gribbs&hl=en}}</ref> His parents were Polish<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lessenbery |first=Jack |date=April 6, 2016 |title=Remembering Roman Gribbs |url=https://www.michiganpublic.org/opinion/2016-04-06/remembering-roman-gribbs |access-date=January 28, 2026 |website=Michigan Public}}</ref> immigrants who were basically farmers, though his father also worked on the Ford assembly line. After graduating from high school in 1944,<ref name = "bio"/> Gribbs served in the Army until 1948.<ref name = "bio"/> He graduated from the University of Detroit in 1952 with a degree in economics and accounting,<ref name = "bio"/> and received a law degree from the same institution in 1954.<ref name = "bio"/> He was an instructor at the university from 1955 through 1957,<ref name = "bio"/> and became an assistant prosecutor in 1957, a position he held until 1964.<ref name = "bio"/><ref name = "wind"/> He entered private practice in 1964,<ref name = "bio"/> in the Detroit law firm of Shaheen, Gribbs, and Brickley, where he was partner with Joseph Shaheen of Grosse Pointe Park.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/roman-gribbs-obituary?pid=179540348|title=Roman S. Gribbs Obituary (1925 - 2016) the Detroit News|last=|first=|date=7 April 2016|website=Legacy.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> Gribbs ran for a seat as a Recorder's Court judge in 1966, but lost.<ref name = "wind"/>
In 1968, Gribbs was appointed sheriff of Wayne County, later winning a full four-year term.<ref name = "wind"/>
===Mayoralty=== In 1969, Gribbs was elected mayor of Detroit,<ref name = "bio"/> defeating opponent Richard H. Austin who later became Michigan Secretary of State. Rather than residing in the Manoogian Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of Detroit, Gribbs maintained residence in Rosedale Park, a neighborhood in northwest Detroit.
In 1969, Gribbs created the Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets (STRESS), a secret and elite police unit. STRESS used a tactic called "decoy operation," where a police officer tried to entrap potential criminals in an undercover sting. From its inception, STRESS all but ignored white criminals, instead focusing their operations on black communities. STRESS increased confrontations between the black community and police. For example, during its first year of operation the Detroit Police Department had the "highest number of civilian killings per capita of any American police department." The unit was accused of conducting 500 raids without the use of search warrants and killing 20 people within 30 months.
In 1973, Gribbs served as president of the National League of Cities.<ref name="NLCpresidents1">{{cite web |title=Past Presidents of the National League of Cities |url=https://www.nlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/NLC-Past-Presidents-List.pdf |publisher=National League of Cities |access-date=13 August 2025 |date=June 2023}}</ref>
Gribbs declined to seek re-election in 1973<ref name="piast">{{cite web | title = Biographies of Piast Institute Staff, Directors and Fellows: Hon. Roman H. Gribbs | publisher = Piast Institute | url = http://www.piastinstitute.org/gribbs.html | accessdate = November 18, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100927031721/https://www.piastinstitute.org/gribbs.html|archive-date=September 27, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> and was succeeded by Coleman Young who was elected Detroit's first African-American mayor in November of that year.
On July 21, 1973, Mayor Gribbs proclaimed “Mary Wilson (of The Supremes) Day” in Detroit, and presented Wilson with a plaque to commemorate the event.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.adampwhite.com/westgrandblog/timeline73 | title=A Motown Timeline: 1973 | date=15 September 2023 }}</ref>
===Subsequent career=== After leaving the mayor's office, Gribbs returned to private practice.<ref name = "bio"/> Gribbs became a circuit court judge in 1975.<ref name="argpress"/> He was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1982,<ref name="argpress"/> upon which he served until his retirement in 2001.<ref name = "piast"/> Gribbs retired to Northville in suburban Detroit, and conducted private practice in mediation and arbitration. He was the chairman of the board of directors of the Piast Institute, a research center devoted to Polish and Polish American affairs.<ref name = "piast"/><ref name="piasta">{{cite web | title = The Mission and History of Piast Institute | publisher = Piast Institute | url =http://www.piastinstitute.org//about.html | accessdate = November 18, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260103015048/https://www.piastinstitute.org/about.html|archive-date=January 3, 2026|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Personal life== Gribbs was married to Katherine Stratis (1932–2011) from 1954 to 1982, and together they had four daughters (Paula, Carla, Rebecca, Elizabeth) and one son (Christopher). In 1990, he married Leola Young Barr. Gribbs died on April 5, 2016, at his home in Northville, Michigan from cancer, aged 90.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ferretti|first1=Christine|title=Ex-Detroit Mayor Roman Gribbs dies at age 90|url=http://www.detroitnews.com/story/obituaries/2016/04/05/detroit-mayor-roman-gribbs/82665358/|work=The Detroit News|date=5 April 2016}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}}
{{S-start}} {{S-off}} {{Succession box| before=Jerome Cavanagh| title=Mayor of Detroit| years=January 6, 1970 – January 1, 1974| after=Coleman Young }} {{S-end}}
{{DetroitMayors}} {{National League of Cities presidents}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gribbs, Roman}} Category:1925 births Category:2016 deaths Category:20th-century mayors of places in Michigan Category:Mayors of Detroit Category:Sheriffs of Wayne County, Michigan Category:Michigan Democrats Category:Michigan Court of Appeals judges Category:University of Detroit Mercy alumni Category:American politicians of Polish descent Category:People from St. Clair County, Michigan Category:People from Northville, Michigan Category:20th-century Michigan state court judges Category:21st-century American judges Category:Presidents of the National League of Cities