William Dyke

Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Other people Template:Infobox officeholder William D. "Bill" Dyke (April 25, 1930Template:Spaced ndashMarch 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

Dyke received his bachelor's degree from DePauw University in Indiana.<ref>Martidaledale.com.-Judge Profile: William Dyke</ref> While completing his degree at the University of Wisconsin Law School, he hosted Circus 3, a local children's television program on WISC-TV.<ref>Tim Hollis. Hi There, Boys and Girls!: America's Local Children's TV Shows. 2001, p. 301.</ref> 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.<ref>Mary Erpenbach. "WISC-TV Looks Back On 50 Years Of Excellence Template:Webarchive". Madison Magazine.</ref>

Political career

Dyke was a two-term mayor of Madison, Wisconsin from 1969 to 1973.<ref name="Obit2">Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> His tenure as mayor is considered a colorful and often controversial part of Madison's history.<ref>Richard L. Kenyon. "Soglin heats up MadisonTemplate:Dead link". The Milwaukee Journal, March 26, 1989.</ref> 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.<ref name="Obit2"/> One of those student activists, Paul Soglin, defeated Dyke's attempt for re-election in 1973.<ref name="Obit2"/><ref name="election1973">Template:Cite news</ref> Undeterred, Dyke ran as the Republican nominee for governor in 1974, losing to Democrat Patrick Lucey.<ref name="Obit2"/>

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.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Dead link</ref> Maddox and Dyke won 170,274 votes in the general election (or 0.21% of votes).<ref>U.S. Election Atlas: 1976 Presidential General Election Results.</ref>

Post-political career

Following the end of his political career, Dyke opened a general contracting business in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, and bred horses.<ref name="obit"/> He also worked as a family mediation lawyer in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.<ref name="obit"/>

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.<ref name="Obit2"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="Obit2"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="obit">Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>OCLC World Cat</ref>

Electoral history

Madison Mayor (1969, 1971, 1973)

Template:Election box begin | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| Primary Election, March 6, 1973 Template:Election box winning candidate with party link Template:Election box winning candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box total | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, April 3, 1973 Template:Election box winning candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box plurality Template:Election box total Template:Election box end

Wisconsin Governor (1974)

Template:Election box begin | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 3, 1974 Template:Election box winning candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box candidate with party link Template:Election box plurality Template:Election box total Template:Election box hold with party link no swing Template:Election box end