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.

Bill Dyke
Chief Judge of the 7th District of Wisconsin Circuit Courts
In office
August 1, 2007 – July 31, 2013
Preceded byMichael J. Rosborough
Succeeded byJames J. Duvall
Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge for the Iowa Circuit
In office
January 1, 1997 – January 2016
Appointed byTommy Thompson
Preceded byJames P. Fiedler
Succeeded byMargaret M. Koehler
49th Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin
In office
April 1969 – April 17, 1973
Preceded byOtto Festge
Succeeded byPaul Soglin
Personal details
Born(1930-04-25)April 25, 1930
Princeton, Illinois, U.S.
DiedMarch 10, 2016(2016-03-10) (aged 85)
Dodgeville, Wisconsin, U.S.
Cause of deathPancreatic cancer
Political partyRepublican
Other political
affiliations
American Independent (1976)
SpouseChristine
Children4
Alma materDePauw University
University of Wisconsin Law School

Early life

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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

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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

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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

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Madison Mayor (1969, 1971, 1973)

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Madison, Wisconsin, Mayoral Election, 1973[13][6]
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)

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Wisconsin Gubernatorial Election, 1974[14]
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

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  1. ^ Martidaledale.com.-Judge Profile: William Dyke
  2. ^ Tim Hollis. Hi There, Boys and Girls!: America's Local Children's TV Shows. 2001, p. 301.
  3. ^ Mary Erpenbach. "WISC-TV Looks Back On 50 Years Of Excellence Archived 2011-09-18 at the Wayback Machine". Madison Magazine.
  4. ^ 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.  
  5. ^ Richard L. Kenyon. "Soglin heats up Madison". The Milwaukee Journal, March 26, 1989.
  6. ^ a b Bauman, Michael (April 4, 1973). "Soglin ousts Dyke in record turnout". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Maddox may file suit if left out of debate", Eugene Register-Guard, 1976-08-30, retrieved 2010-01-12
  8. ^ U.S. Election Atlas: 1976 Presidential General Election Results.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ Lampert Smith, Susan (December 4, 1996). "Dyke Named Iowa Co. circuit judge". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Wisconsin Court System: Circuit Court Judges
  12. ^ OCLC World Cat
  13. ^ Bauman, Michael (March 7, 1973). "Dyke, Soglin to Vie for Mayor". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  14. ^ 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.
Party political offices
Preceded by Republican nominee for Governor of Wisconsin
1974
Succeeded by
Preceded by American Independent nominee for Vice President of the United States
1976
Succeeded by
Eileen Shearer
Political offices
Preceded by
Otto Festge
Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin
1969 – 1973
Succeeded by
Legal offices
Preceded by
James P. Fiedler
Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge for the Iowa Circuit
1996 – 2016
Succeeded by
Margaret M. Koehler
Preceded by
Michael J. Rosborough
Chief Judge of the 7th District of Wisconsin Circuit Courts
2007 – 2013
Succeeded by
James J. Duvall