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 the New Jersey Senate from 1948 to 1951.

As governor, Meyner reformed the New Jersey Democratic Party to move away from the domination of the Frank Hague political machine and political corruption scandals of the 1940s and 1950s and restructured state government to centralize and economize its administration. He was broadly popular as governor and is remembered for increasing the efficiency state government without instituting a sales or income tax through increased revenues from existing taxes. Politically liberal, Meyner opposed McCarthyism and criticized President Dwight D. Eisenhower while defending civil liberties and civil rights. In 1960, he unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for president as a favorite son candidate but finished fifth behind John F. Kennedy.

Early life and education

Robert Baumle Meyner was born on July 3, 1908, in Easton, Pennsylvania, to Gustave Herman Meyner Sr. (1878–1950) and Maria Sophia Bäumle (1881–1968). His father was a German American loom fixer and silk worker from Manchester, New Hampshire. His mother was German, but born in Birsfelden near Basel, Switzerland, to Robert Bäumle from Harpolingen, Baden and to Franziska Oliva Thüring from Istein, Baden. Robert had an older brother, Gustave Herman Meyner Jr. (1907–1996), and a younger sister, Olive F. Meyner Wagner (1913–1982).

In 1916, the Meyner family moved across the state border to Phillipsburg, New Jersey. They briefly moved to Paterson, New Jersey but returned to Phillipsburg by 1922, living on Lincoln Street in a house built by his grandfather. He financed his education by working in the silk mills near Easton and Phillipsburg, including as a weaver at the Gunning Silk Company.

After the start of World War II, Meyner enlisted in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, where he used his legal training to defend sailors in courts-martial and became commander of a gun crew on a merchant vessel. He was discharged with the rank of lieutenant commander, which he kept in the United States Navy Reserve. At the 1960 Democratic National Convention, however, Meyner received 43 votes for president, finishing fifth behind Kennedy, Johnson, Stuart Symington and Stevenson. His decision to oppose Kennedy on the first ballot and withhold New Jersey's votes led to the decline of his political career. (Wiley was later elected to the New Jersey Senate in 1973.) Meyner accepted lucrative positions with banks and insurance companies and became administrator of the cigarette industry's code on fair advertising. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and served two terms from 1975 until 1979.

Death

Meyner had a stroke in 1986 and died on May 27, 1990, in Captiva, Florida.

References

  • New Jersey Governor Robert Baumie Meyner, National Governors Association
  • "Dead Governors of New Jersey" biography for Robert B. Meyner.
  • Robert B. Meyner, The Political Graveyard.