Hugh T. Cropper Jr.
mayor · active 1961–1970 (mayor); councilman thereafter
Mayor of Ocean City through the 1960s, in the chair for all forty-seven meetings of 1964 — the year sewerage or water was discussed at every one of them, 617 times, as the 1957 promise of water in four years and sewer in eight came due. He urged every citizen to evacuate on the Tuesday of the Ash Wednesday storm in March 1962. He told the council in November 1966 that boat owners should be taxed like other property owners because "they make so much money in the summer there that they don't even have to work the rest of the year," and in January of that year asked the State Police for a substation at U.S. 50 and 113, citing summer traffic and the new Cape May ferry. He did not stand again in 1970, filing instead for County Commissioner against Louis J. Hickman, and took a council seat in the same week Robert B. Jackson filed for the mayoralty. Harry W. Kelley won the succession.
In the record (5)
1966 · 1966-01-06
The mayor asked the State Police for a substation at U.S. 50 and 113, citing summer traffic to Ocean City and the new Cape May–Lewes ferry
"Resort Police Mayor To Ask For Sub-Station Here — Mayor Hugh T. Cropper Jr. of Ocean City told the Council Tuesday night that he planned to ask Col. Carey Jarmon, superintendent of the Maryland State [Police], for support in getting a state police substation at the intersection of U.S. 50 and 113 just northeast of Berlin … his main reason … the increased traffic on U.S. 50 going to Ocean City in the summer and an increased amount of traffic on U.S. 113 because of the Cape May Ferry." The ferry opened in 1964; two years later the resort is asking the State for police because of it. In July the Commissioners asked for a change at the same intersection, which by 1968 would have eight recorded deaths since 1965.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1966 · 1966-09-20
The council conditionally approved a convention hall site at 39th Street, between the beach highway and the bay — not the Trimper land it had contracted for in 1964, and not downtown
"The Ocean City Mayor and Council conditionally approved a site for the proposed convention hall Tuesday night … The site that was approved is at 39th St. and between the beach highway and the bay … brought up by Mayor Hugh T. Cropper Jr., who is pushing for a convention hall at the resort at the earliest possible date." A hall at 39th Street is a hall in the annexed territory of 1957 — the town spending its State money in the new half of itself.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1970 · 1970-04-18
The Ocean City Convention Hall was dedicated on 18 April 1970 with two governors on the platform and the mayor who had spent a decade asking
"Gov. Marvin Mandel will head the list of dignitaries who will be present at the opening of the Ocean City Convention Hall, scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday. The program will begin with greetings from Blair Lee III, Secretary of State … after which George R. Lewis, Director of Public Improvements for Maryland, will present the key to the building to J. Marshall Stewart, chairman of the Convention Hall Commission. Speeches will be given by Louis L. Goldstein, Comptroller, and J. Millard Tawes, former Governor … Other honored guests will include Ocean City Mayor Hugh T. Cropper Jr., Commissioner Chairman Ray Hodden, Sen. Mary L. Nock, Sen. Frederick C. Malkus and Del. Russell O. Hickman." Ten years after a faction argued a hall would help the economy more than liberalised beverage laws; after a $45,000 land contract in 1964, a $1.25m appropriation in 1966, $3m and a director from Miami Beach in 1968, and a scramble in 1969 for sprinklers, a bulkhead and eleven acres of parking. It needed one more begging letter first — "Convention Hall Needs $35,000 For Completion" on 11 March.
Roland E. Powell Convention Center
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1970 · 1970-07-29
Hugh Cropper did not run again after a decade as mayor, filing instead for County Commissioner — and filed for a Council seat the same week Robert Jackson filed for mayor
"Voters in Ocean City will go to the polls to elect a new mayor and four Councilmen with a large turnout expected from the 1,600-plus registered voters. A new face in the Mayor's office is assured as Mayor Hugh T. Cropper Jr. will not run. He will be running for County Commissioner against Louis J. Hickman." The three candidates as the paper introduced them: Robert B. Jackson, two four-year terms on the Council, the last as secretary, fifty-six, forty years in Ocean City, outdoor advertising and apartment rentals; Harry W. Kelley, sixteen years on the Council, four of them as president, a native of the town with several business interests; and Josh Richardson, who resigned from the Council after two years in order to run, owner of a market, seven years in the town. Kelley won — he is mayor in the 1972 minutes — but the result was not found in the pages read.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1971
1971 is Harry Kelley's first full year as mayor, having succeeded Hugh T. Cropper Jr. — which answers the question the 1970 minutes left open
The 1970 file records three candidates for the mayoralty in July 1970 — Robert B. Jackson, Harry W. Kelley and Josh Richardson — and notes that the result was not found in the pages read. Kelley had sixteen years on the Council behind him, four of them as president. He would govern the boom, the dune-line war, the casino refusal and the beach bond until his death in office in February 1985.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-09-02