Charles Phelps Taft II (September 20, 1897 – June 24, 1983) was an American politician who served as Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 1955 to 1957.

During his term as mayor, Fortune magazine ranked Cincinnati as the best managed big city in the United States.

[citation needed] Taft was an avid fan of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team and sometimes listened to games on the radio with an earplug during city council meetings.

[citation needed] He served on the vestry (board of directors for an Episcopal parish) of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati for decades.

[7] The large sculpture on the southwest corner of the Christ Church Cathedral building is commemorated to him and was created by the commissioned artist, Timothy S. Werrell (b.

[7] To this day, The Taft Lecture Series, funded by The Charles P. and Eleanor Taft Memorial Fund, "features provocative thinkers, writers, teachers, theologians, social justice activists, and leaders in the fields of religion, social science, the arts, politics, and more.

"[9] In his later years he spent much time preserving his father's childhood home, which became the William Howard Taft National Historic Site.

[10] Though these types of clauses had been deemed illegal and unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948, Taft defended himself by saying, “I built 265 good houses during the war at Woodside Homes and Shawanoe Trail and I am proud of them.