William Dyke
Bill Dyke | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chief Judge of the 7th District of Wisconsin Circuit Courts | |
| In office August 1, 2007 – July 31, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Michael J. Rosborough |
| Succeeded by | James J. Duvall |
| Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge for the Iowa Circuit | |
| In office January 1, 1997 – January 2016 | |
| Appointed by | Tommy Thompson |
| Preceded by | James P. Fiedler |
| Succeeded by | Margaret M. Koehler |
| 49th Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin | |
| In office April 1969 – April 17, 1973 | |
| Preceded by | Otto Festge |
| Succeeded by | Paul Soglin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 25, 1930 Princeton, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | March 10, 2016 (aged 85) Dodgeville, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Pancreatic cancer |
| Political party | Republican |
| Other political affiliations | American Independent (1976) |
| Spouse | Christine |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | DePauw University University of Wisconsin Law School |
William D. "Bill" Dyke (April 25, 1930 – March 10, 2016) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. He was the 49th mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, from 1969 to 1973, and ran for Vice President of the United States on the American Independent Party ticket with presidential candidate Lester Maddox in the 1976 presidential election. He was also the Republican nominee for Governor of Wisconsin in the 1974 gubernatorial election. From 1996 until two months before his death, in 2016, he served as a Wisconsin circuit court judge in Iowa County, Wisconsin; he was chief judge of the 7th Judicial Administrative District from 2007 to 2013.
Early life
[edit]Dyke received his bachelor's degree from DePauw University in Indiana.[1] While completing his degree at the University of Wisconsin Law School, he hosted Circus 3, a local children's television program on WISC-TV.[2] He also moderated Face the State, a local political news program modeled after the nationally televised Face the Nation. The program included interviews with Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Gerald Ford, John F. Kennedy and other prominent politicians.[3]
Political career
[edit]Dyke was a two-term mayor of Madison, Wisconsin from 1969 to 1973.[4] His tenure as mayor is considered a colorful and often controversial part of Madison's history.[5] Dyke presided over Madison during the most turbulent era in the city's history, highlighted by the Sterling Hall bombing and subsequent clashes with student uprisings.[4] One of those student activists, Paul Soglin, defeated Dyke's attempt for re-election in 1973.[4][6] Undeterred, Dyke ran as the Republican nominee for governor in 1974, losing to Democrat Patrick Lucey.[4]
A conservative Republican, Dyke briefly left the party in 1976 to join Lester Maddox's American Independent Party presidential ticket as the vice presidential nominee; however, he disavowed Maddox's segregationist views.[7] Maddox and Dyke won 170,274 votes in the general election (or 0.21% of votes).[8]
Post-political career
[edit]Following the end of his political career, Dyke opened a general contracting business in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, and bred horses.[9] He also worked as a family mediation lawyer in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.[9]
On December 3, 1996, Governor Tommy Thompson appointed Dyke to the circuit court vacancy in Iowa County, created by the impending retirement of Judge James P. Fiedler.[4][10] He was elected to a full term on the court in 1998 and subsequently re-elected in 2004 and 2010. He later was selected as the chief judge of the 7th Judicial Administrative District by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and served the maximum of three two-year terms in that role. Dyke left the bench in January 2016, and died of pancreatic cancer in a Dodgeville, Wisconsin, nursing home two months later.[4][11][9]
Dyke illustrated the children's book The General's Hat, or Why the Bell Tower Stopped Working, a tale written by Kay Price about two mice who get on the same ship with General Ulysses S. Grant on his travels to Galena, Illinois.[12]
Electoral history
[edit]Madison Mayor (1969, 1971, 1973)
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Election, March 6, 1973 | |||||
| Nonpartisan | William Dyke (incumbent) | 16,243 | 36.16% | ||
| Nonpartisan | Paul Soglin | 11,485 | 25.56% | ||
| Nonpartisan | David Stewart | 10,350 | 23.04% | ||
| Nonpartisan | Leo Cooper | 6,150 | 13.69% | ||
| Nonpartisan | R. Whelan Burke | 283 | 0.63% | ||
| Nonpartisan | David Robb | 161 | 0.36% | ||
| Nonpartisan | Joseph Kraemer | 122 | 0.27% | ||
| Nonpartisan | Mark Gregersen | 27 | 0.06% | ||
| Scattering | 105 | 0.23% | |||
| Total votes | 44,926 | 100.0% | |||
| General Election, April 3, 1973 | |||||
| Nonpartisan | Paul Soglin | 37,548 | 52.35% | ||
| Nonpartisan | William Dyke (incumbent) | 34,179 | 47.65% | ||
| Plurality | 3,369 | 4.70% | |||
| Total votes | 71,727 | 100.0% | |||
Wisconsin Governor (1974)
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Election, November 3, 1974 | |||||
| Democratic | Patrick Lucey (incumbent) Martin J. Schreiber (incumbent) |
628,639 | 53.19% | −1.04% | |
| Republican | William Dyke John M. Alberts |
497,189 | 42.07% | −2.80% | |
| American Independent | William H. Upham Donald D. Hoeft |
33,528 | 2.84% | +2.16% | |
| Independent | Crazy Jim Gary G. Wetzel |
12,107 | 1.02% | ||
| Socialist | William O. Hart Fred Dahir |
5,113 | 0.43% | ||
| Communist | Fred Basset Blair Mary K. Blair |
3,617 | 0.31% | ||
| Socialist Labor | Georgia Cozzini David Hornung |
1,492 | 0.13% | +0.03% | |
| Scattering | 199 | 0.02% | |||
| Plurality | 131,450 | 11.12% | +1.76% | ||
| Total votes | 1,181,884 | 100.0% | -12.01% | ||
| Democratic hold | |||||
References
[edit]- ^ Martidaledale.com.-Judge Profile: William Dyke
- ^ Tim Hollis. Hi There, Boys and Girls!: America's Local Children's TV Shows. 2001, p. 301.
- ^ Mary Erpenbach. "WISC-TV Looks Back On 50 Years Of Excellence Archived 2011-09-18 at the Wayback Machine". Madison Magazine.
- ^ a b c d e f "Former Madison Mayor Dies at 85". The Post-Crescent. Appleton, WI. March 13, 2016. p. A2. Retrieved August 7, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Richard L. Kenyon. "Soglin heats up Madison". The Milwaukee Journal, March 26, 1989.
- ^ a b Bauman, Michael (April 4, 1973). "Soglin ousts Dyke in record turnout". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Maddox may file suit if left out of debate", Eugene Register-Guard, 1976-08-30, retrieved 2010-01-12
- ^ U.S. Election Atlas: 1976 Presidential General Election Results.
- ^ a b c Glaze, Jeff (March 11, 2016). "Bill Dyke, Madison Mayor during Vietnam War, Dead at 85". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ Lampert Smith, Susan (December 4, 1996). "Dyke Named Iowa Co. circuit judge". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Wisconsin Court System: Circuit Court Judges
- ^ OCLC World Cat
- ^ Bauman, Michael (March 7, 1973). "Dyke, Soglin to Vie for Mayor". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. (1975). "Elections in Wisconsin". The state of Wisconsin 1975 Blue Book (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. p. 817. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- 1930 births
- 2016 deaths
- 20th-century American far-right politicians
- American Independent Party vice presidential nominees
- DePauw University alumni
- Mayors of Madison, Wisconsin
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