William Waitman Gullett (October 11, 1922 – September 24, 2015) served as the first county executive of Prince George's County, Maryland from 1971 to 1974. He had previously served three terms as the mayor of College Park from 1963 to 1969, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Maryland, 1967–68 and a presidential elector for Maryland in 1972.

Early life

Gullett was born in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

to parents Noah and Clara Virgin (Willett) Gullett. He served in the US Army Air Corps in World War II as a B-17 pilot based in England. Gullett married Helen Jaunita Hammons in Springfield on March 20, 1943. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, after which he settled in Prince George's County with an interest in

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

; Gullett held 21 US patents in the area. The couple's first son, William Jr., was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, followed by Christopher and twin daughters, Michele and Nicole, in Washington, D.C. Gullet managed metallurgical projects at Diamond Shamrock and was president of Chicago Development Corp., a metallurgical research firm in

Riverdale, Maryland Riverdale Park, formerly known and often referred to as Riverdale, is a semi-urban town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, a suburb in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The population was 6,955 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. T ...

Public service

An interest in zoning issues that affected his home in College Park, Maryland influenced Gullett's entry into community affairs. He was elected to the city council in 1961, and became mayor two years later, serving for three terms until 1969. Gullett was elected as County Executive in a 1971 special election to choose the county's first executive under a new home rule charter, defeating one Republican and five Democratic candidates. Although initially supported by a broad coalition of Republicans and a pro-charter, anti-development group led by local activist Julian C. Holmes, he lost support because of perceived poor performance and constant conflict with the Democratic-controlled County Council. He lost his bid for reelection in 1974 when the Prince George's County

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swept

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from power, defeating every Republican running for state or local office. On leaving office, Gullett was asked to serve in a USAID mission and did so, working as the assistant director for Management in Haiti from 1982 to 1985.

Personal life and death

Gullett's son, William, was shot and killed on February 16, 1969, while on duty as a young Prince George's County police officer. After his political service ended, Gullett worked for federal agencies and for the

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engineering firm. He served as director of licenses and permits in the administration of the second Republican Prince George's County Executive, Lawrence Hogan, in 1979. Gullett's first marriage ended in divorce in 1987, after which he married Doris Wilson, who had been his administrative assistant while he was county executive. After his second wife died in 1991, Gullett married Barbara Yurica, who died in April 2015 after 20 years of marriage. Gullett had homes in Vero Beach, Florida and

Hope, New York Hope is a town in Hamilton County, New York, United States. The population was 403 at the 2010 census. First settled in 1790 and established as a town in 1818, Hope is located in the southeastern corner of the county and is northwest of Schene ...

. He died at the age of 92 on September 24, 2015, at a hospital in Gloversville, New York upon cardiorespiratory arrest.

Early life

Public service

Personal life and death

References

Further reading