Thomas D. Westfall

Who was Thomas D. Westfall?

Thomas D. Westfall, former mayor of El Paso, Texas, was born in Decatur, Illinois. Westfall joined the United States Marine Corps at the age of 17 and served with the 1st Marines in the Pacific and in Tientsin, China during the final campaigns of World War II. After the war, under the G.I. Bill, Westfall attended Millikin University where he obtained a BA degree, and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign where he obtained a law degree in 1951. Westfall was then hired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and worked as an agent for over 25 years in Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, Washington, D.C., Savannah, Georgia, and finally in El Paso, Texas, where he was the Assistant Special Agent in Charge. In this capacity he supervised criminal investigations of offenses of federal laws until his retirement. He was a member of the Ohio State Bar Association.

In 1978, Westfall was elected Mayor of El Paso. A no-nonsense individual, he ran into situations which put him in opposition to many of his political opponents, some of whom preferred a more subtle approach to problems and after only one term in office he chose not to run for re-election.