William K. Dickey (September 12, 1920 – November 3, 2008) was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who served as Speaker of the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...

and as chairman of the

Delaware River Port Authority The Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA), officially the Delaware River Port Authority of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is a bi-state agency instrumentality created by a congressionally approved interstate compact between the governments of Pen ...

Biography

Dickey was born in 1920 in the Westmont section of

Haddon Township, New Jersey Haddon Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 15,407, an increase of 700 (+4.8%) from the 2010 United States ce ...

and grew up in Collingswood. He attended

Collingswood High School Collingswood High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Collingswood in Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the sole secondary school of Colling ...

, graduating in 1939. An eye injury at the age of 16 exempted him from active military service, but after graduating from high school he served in the

United States Coast Guard Reserve The United States Coast Guard Reserve is the reserve component of the United States Coast Guard. It is organized, trained, administered, and supplied under the direction of the Commandant of the Coast Guard through the Assistant Commandant for ...

. He also supported his family by working full-time on the night shift at the

New York Shipbuilding Corporation The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United ...

in Camden. Dickey graduated from the College of South Jersey (now Rutgers–Camden) in 1941 and from the South Jersey Law School (now

Rutgers School of Law - Camden Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...

) in 1944. He later earned an additional

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1945 and opened a legal practice in Collingswood in 1950. He maintained the office until his retirement in 2007. He served eight years as a municipal judge for Collingswood, Gibbsboro, and Medford. He was also elected president of the New Jersey Jaycees. Dickey became active in Republican politics in Camden County, serving as chairman of the Collingswood Republican Club for 16 years. In 1962 he was named Camden County Republican Campaign Chairman. The following year he was elected to the first of five consecutive terms in the

. In the Assembly, Dickey was selected as Minority Leader in 1967, Majority Leader in 1968 and 1969, and Speaker in 1970. In 1973, he lost his bid for reelection in a statewide Democratic landslide in the wake of the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly in 1975 and 1977. In 1980, at the age of 60, Dickey married Irene Campbell, a divorcee with four children. They had known each other since high school. In 1983, Governor

Thomas Kean Thomas Howard Kean ( ; born April 21, 1935) is an American businessman, academic administrator and politician. A member of the Republican Party, Kean served as the 48th governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. Following his tenure as governor, ...

appointed Dickey to the Board of Commissioners for the

. He served as chairman from 1985 to 1987, and remained on the board until 1994. Dickey retired from his Collingswood legal practice in 2007. He died in 2008 at the age of 88 at his home in

Haddonfield :''Not the fictional Illinois town from the Halloween film series.'' Haddonfield is a borough located in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough had a total population of 11,593,

References

External links

William K. Dickey
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickey, William F. 1920 births 2008 deaths New Jersey lawyers Collingswood High School alumni People from Collingswood, New Jersey People from Haddon Township, New Jersey People from Haddonfield, New Jersey Rutgers School of Law–Camden alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Speakers of the New Jersey General Assembly Republican Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American lawyers