Stephen Bradford Wiley (June 21, 1929 – October 8, 2015) was an American attorney, poet, businessman, civic leader, and Democratic Party politician. Wiley served in the

New Jersey State Senate The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...

from 1973 to 1978, where he represented Morris County. He was an unsuccessful candidate for

Governor of New Jersey The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official r ...

in the 1985 Democratic primary election.

Early life, education, and military service

Wiley was born on June 21, 1929 in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Morristown High School, graduating in 1947. His father had been the district's superintendent of schools. Wiley earned his undergraduate degree from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1951, graduating ''cum laude'' with a major in Politics. In 1953, Wiley married Judith Alexander. Wiley was awarded a law degree from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1954. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

from 1954 to 1956.

Legal career and civic involvement

Wiley worked as legal counsel to New Jersey Governor

Robert B. Meyner Robert Baumle Meyner (July 3, 1908 – May 27, 1990) was an American Democratic Party politician and attorney who served as the 44th governor of New Jersey from 1954 to 1962. Before being elected governor, Meyner represented Warren County in t ...

. He and Gov. Meyner formed the law firm of Meyner and Wiley. In the early 1970s, Wiley led a legal battle to stop Morris Township from building its own high school. Wiley was concerned that separate high schools in Morris Township and Morristown would create a system of ''de facto'' segregation, " asteningwhite flight from Morristown nddooming it to the same turmoil afflicting New Jersey’s urban centers." Wiley believed that "having 'a minority center and a white ring around it is nothing but a guarantee of an explosion...'" The court battle went all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court, and resulted in the formation of a regional school district serving Morristown, Morris Township and (for high school) Morris Plains. In 1973, Wiley founded the law firm of Wiley, Malehorn and Sirota (later renamed Wiley, Malehorn, Sirota, and Raynes) in Morris Township. Wiley also founded Morris

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, the county's first

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

company, the First Morris Bank and Trust, and the Morris County United Way. "Wiley spearheaded multi-million-dollar fund drives to secure and enhance public institutions that are bedrocks of the reater Morristown, New Jerseycommunity: The Community Theatre (now the Mayo Performing Arts Center), the Morristown & Township Library and the historic Morristown Green."

Political career

In the aftermath 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 ...

in 1973, Wiley ran for the New Jersey State Senate in two separate but concurrent elections. One election was a

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in the 10th Legislative District (consisting of the entirety of Morris County) to fill the remaining term of

Joseph J. Maraziti Joseph James Maraziti (June 15, 1912 – May 20, 1991) was a one-term U.S. Representative from New Jersey from 1973 to 1975. Early life and career Maraziti was born in Boonton, New Jersey and attended the public schools. He attended Fordham Un ...

, who had been elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in the previous year. The other election was for a four-year term in the newly formed 23rd Legislative District (consisting of central Morris County municipalities). In both elections, he faced Republican Assemblywoman Josephine Margetts. Wiley defeated Margetts in both elections (by two points in the special election and by six in the regular election), becoming the first Democrat to win a State Senate seat from Morris County in sixty years. Wiley was sworn into the Senate on November 12, 1973, serving two months of Maraziti's unexpired term from the

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...

Morris County district. Later, in his full Senate term, Wiley served as Chair of the Senate Education Committee, the Joint Committee on the Public Schools and the Senate Rules Committee. Wiley was responsible for drafting legislation which became the Public School Education Act of 1975, which established a state income tax in New Jersey that was specified as a source for school funding in addition to locally assessed property taxes. He was named a top legislator by ''

New Jersey Monthly ''New Jersey Monthly'' is an American monthly magazine featuring issues of possible interest to residents of New Jersey. The magazine was started in 1976. It is based in Morristown. In addition to articles of general interest, the publication fe ...

'' magazine. Governor Brendan Byrne nominated Wiley to the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging th ...

in 1975 following the retirement of Justice Frederick W. Hall. His nomination was approved by the Senate, but was challenged by former Assemblyman David Friedland on the grounds that the State Legislature had voted to raise the salary of justices of the Supreme Court during Wiley's Senate tenure. On February 11, 1977, after two years of appeals, the New Jersey Supreme Court rejected Wiley's nomination because of the pay raise, ruling that Wiley could not be appointed to serve on the Court until after his term of office expired. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the Constitution of the State of New Jersey provides that "no legislator may be appointed to a state job until after his term expires if the salary for the job was raised during the term." Waldron, Martin
"SUPREME COURT BARS WILEY APPOINTMENT; Cites His Membership in Legislature When It Raised Justices' Salaries Byrne to Nominate an Aide"
''The New York Times'', February 12, 1977. Accessed March 8, 2018. Alan B. Handler was later appointed and confirmed to fill the vacancy on the Court. Wiley was defeated by Assemblyman John H. Dorsey, 54%-46%, in his 1977 re-election bid. Wiley ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1985, focusing on the state's toxic waste problem as a campaign issue as he targeted incumbent Republican Governor Tom Kean. Wiley also focused on the Kean administration's failure to provide state aid to public schools under the formula dictated by the Public Education Act of 1975 that Wiley had sponsored.Sullivan, Joseph F
"POLITICS: WILEY'S CAMPAIGN FOR THE NOMINATION FOCUSES ON 'DRIFT'"
''The New York Times'', March 24, 1985. Accessed July 29, 2010. Wiley came in a distant fourth place with 8.6 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary; winner Peter Shapiro received 31.0%, State Senator John F. Russo received 26.6%, and Newark mayor

Kenneth A. Gibson Kenneth Allen Gibson (May 15, 1932 – March 29, 2019) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey, from 1970 to 1986. He was the first African American elected mayor of any major city in the ...

received 26.1%.

Later life

At the age of 70, Wiley began writing poetry. He published three books of poetry: ''Hero Island'' (published in 2005), ''Mockingbird Come Home'' (published in 2007), and ''Latitudes'' (published in 2009). In 2012, he and his wife Judy sold their Morris County home and moved full-time to

South Hero South Hero is the most populous town of both Lake Champlain's largest island of Grand Isle, as well as Grand Isle County, Vermont. South Hero's population was 1,674 at the 2020 census. Geography The town of South Hero includes the southern hal ...

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

Lake Champlain , native_name_lang = , image = Champlainmap.svg , caption = Lake Champlain-River Richelieu watershed , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = New York/ Vermont in the United States; and Quebec in Canada , coords = , type ...

; they later moved to nearby

Shelburne, Vermont Shelburne is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. Located along the shores of Lake Champlain, Shelburne's town center lies approximately south of the city center of Burlington, the largest city in the state of Vermont. As of th ...

. Wiley died on October 8, 2015 in Shelburne at the age of 86.Staff
"Stephen Wiley"
''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to '' The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the '' Staten Island Advance'', all of ...

'', October 11, 2015. Accessed October 12, 2015. Wiley was survived by his wife, by their sons Jonathan and Benjamin, by their daughter Katherine, and by several grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiley, Stephen B. 1929 births 2015 deaths Princeton University alumni Columbia Law School alumni Morristown High School (Morristown, New Jersey) alumni New Jersey lawyers Democratic Party New Jersey state senators People from Morristown, New Jersey People from Morris Township, New Jersey People from South Hero, Vermont People from Shelburne, Vermont 20th-century American lawyers