Born in 1939 in Medford, Oregon, Charles Royer briefly attended Portland State University before being drafted by the Army in 1961. Upon being discharged from the military, he went to the University of Oregon and studied journalism. He worked as a news reporter for television stations in Eugene, Portland, and Seattle for about ten years before running for Seattle mayor in 1977. He won election, taking office in 1978 and serving three terms before stepping down at the end of 1989. Major issues Royer worked on during his tenure included public housing, the downtown bus tunnel, pollution, the High Ross Dam, the convention center, downtown development, and public health. He served as president of the National League of Cities in the early 1980s. After leaving office, Royer was the director of the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics at Harvard for five years before returning to Seattle to work for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Urban Health Initiative. He later founded the nonprofit Institute for Community Change and worked as a consultant.