Quick Facts
Biography
Eric G. Hoyer (March 3, 1898 – March 17, 1990) was an American interior designer and politician who served as mayor of Minneapolis from 1948 to 1957.
Life and career
Hoyer was born in Sweden and emigrated to Minnesota in 1919 to settle the estate of his brother who had died during the 1918 flu pandemic. He ended up remaining in Minneapolis and working in construction and later interior design. He took classes at the Dunwoody Institute but later remarked that he learned most of his skills on his own.
His interest in politics began when he worked on the campaign of Floyd B. Olson. Thereafter he became involved with local labor unions and, in 1936, was elected to the Minneapolis City Council. When Hubert Humphrey resigned as mayor after winning election to the United States Senate in 1948, Hoyer (as president of the city council) became the city's acting mayor. He was later elected to four additional terms, serving from 1948 to 1957 during a largely uneventful period in the city's history. He lost his re-election bid in 1957 to P. Kenneth Peterson.
Hoyer died in 1990 in Manhattan Beach, California.