William Thomas Cahill

William Thomas Cahill (June 25, 1912 – July 1, 1996) was a liberal American politician, lawyer, and academic who served as the 46th governor of New Jersey from 1970 to 1974. A Republican, Cahill previously served in the New Jersey General Assembly and U.S. House of Representatives.

Having defeated former Democratic Governor Robert B. Meyner in the 1969 election, for reelection in 1973, but lost renomination in the Republican primary to congressman Charles W. Sandman by almost 17 points. He is the only Governor of New Jersey to lose renomination in a primary.

Early life Cahill was born in Philadelphia to Irish immigrants William P. Cahill and Rose Cahill. The family moved to Collingswood in 1919. He attended Camden Catholic High School in Camden, New Jersey, and graduated in 1929. Afterwards, Cahill graduated St. Joseph's College (now Saint Joseph's University) at Philadelphia in 1933. He returned to Camden to study at the Rutgers School of Law - Camden, receiving his law degree in 1937.

Political career

In 1937 and 1938, Cahill was a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 1939 he was admitted to the bar and began his political career. Living in Collingswood, New Jersey, Cahill was the city prosecutor of Camden, New Jersey, in 1944 and 1945, was the first assistant prosecutor of Camden County from 1948 to 1951 and was a special deputy attorney general of the State of New Jersey in 1951.

Cahill was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1951 to 1953. Cahill was elected to the Eighty-sixth and to the five succeeding Congresses. During his tenure in the US House, Cahill voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He served in the House until resigning to assume his seat as governor, serving from January 3, 1970, to January 19, 1974. Throughout his tenure in Congress and as governor, Cahill was widely viewed as a moderate Republican.

Governor of New Jersey Cahill meets with President Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Linwood Holton, and Kenneth Reese Cole Jr. in 1973 In 1969, Cahill ran for Governor of New Jersey, facing off against Democrat Robert B. Meyner, who had previously held the office from 1954 to 1962.

Death After his term as governor, Cahill was a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University from 1974 to 1978. Cahill died at his daughter's house in Haddonfield, New Jersey, on July 1, 1996, of peripheral artery disease. Cahill was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey. The William T. Cahill Center for Experiential Learning and Career Services at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, was dedicated in his honor on September 10, 1997.