Joseph Anthony Adame (born October 20,1945) is an American politician and real estate broker who was the first elected Hispanic mayor of Corpus Christi,Texas,serving from May 2009 to November 2012.[1]
Adame was born in Corpus Christi. He graduated from Corpus Christi Academy in 1963,then attended Del Mar College in 1964. Adame graduated from Sam Houston State University in 1968 with a degree in business.[2]
Career
After college,Adame became a real estate broker and,in 1974,he founded Joe Adame &Associates,a commercial real estate firm.[2] In 1997,Adame was appointed by the governor to the Texas Real Estate Center Advisory Committee,serving as chairman from 1997 to 2006.[3] Adame also served as chairman of the Corpus Christi Regional Development Corporation from 1999 to 2002.[4]
Mayor
Adame ran for mayor of Corpus Christi in 2009 "after he became frustrated with years of sluggish city growth."[5] He received 65.58% of the vote and defeated the incumbent mayor Henry Garrett in the first defeat of an incumbent Corpus Christi mayor in 50 years.[5][6] Adame won re-election to a second term in 2011,receiving 71.88% of the vote.[7] Early in his second term,he decided not to run a third time in order to spend more time with his family.[1] Adame's tenure as mayor was noted for several accomplishments including:an ordinance allowing residential wind turbines,demolition of the Memorial Coliseum,a stream-lined recycling program,hiring of a new city manager to balance the city budget,and approval of a $117 million tax-incentive to build a water park on Padre Island.[1]
Honors
Adame received the William Jennings Lonestar Trophy for the 1995 outstanding commercial transaction in Texas.[3] In 2008,he was inducted into the Corpus Christi Business Hall of Fame.[3] In 2012,Adame received the Knight of the Honorable Order of St. Michael special award from the United States Army for his support of Corpus Christi Army Depot.[8] In 2014,Adame was named the G. Russell Kirkland Distinguished Visiting Executive by Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.[9]
Personal life
Adame married Kathy Ana Scogin in 1971.[10] They have three children.[4]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
