Dinkins’ death came just weeks after the death of his wife, Joyce, who died in October at the age of 89. New Jersey-born Dinkins served as mayor of New York for four years between 1990 and 1993.
In the 1989 election, he defeated incumbent Mayor Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani. The latter, currently a lawyer for President Donald Trump, would defeat Dinkins four years later. Giuliani sent his condolences to the relatives via Twitter. “He devoted much of his life to our beautiful city.”
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In his inaugural address, Dinkins fondly spoke of New York as a “beautiful mosaic of race and creed, of ancestry and sexual orientation, of individuals whose families arrived yesterday and generations ago, via Ellis Island or Kennedy Airport.”
Current New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio worked in the Dinkins administration. He named the Manhattan Municipal Building after the former mayor in October 2015.
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