Background
Alfred Eastlack Driscoll was born on October 25, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Alfred Robie Driscoll and Mattie Eastlack. Driscoll's family moved to New Jersey shortly after he was born.
Alfred Eastlack Driscoll was born on October 25, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Alfred Robie Driscoll and Mattie Eastlack. Driscoll's family moved to New Jersey shortly after he was born.
Driscoll attended Haddonfield public schools and graduated from Williams College in 1925 and Harvard Law School in 1928.
As a law student, Driscoll explored northern Canada near the Arctic Circle looking for new oil fields. He and his colleagues found oil deposits but concluded that transportation costs from the remote area would prohibit further development.
Admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1929, Driscoll joined the law firm of Starr, Summerill, and Lloyd in Camden, where he practiced for eighteen years. In the 1930's, he sought to establish that Franklin D. Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration was unconstitutional. But another lawyer succeeded first and received the credit for the legal milestone.
In 1929, he was elected to the Haddonfield Board of Education in opposition to a group he suspected had more interest in patronage and building contracts than education. Driscoll served on the school board for nine years and was its president in 1937. Driscoll was also elected to the Haddonfield Borough Commission, on which he served as director of revenues and finances.
Throughout his long political career, Driscoll never lost his earnestness and zeal. Elected to the state senate from Camden County in 1938 as a "good government" candidate, he advanced quickly in Trenton. Driscoll wrote and successfully pushed through the legislature a housing law protecting tenants against fire and accidents, civil rights laws, and additional funding for children with disabilities. In 1940, Driscoll was elected senate majority leader. At the end of Driscoll's three-year senate term, he was appointed state alcoholic beverage commissioner. Even his critics acknowledged that Driscoll was impartial and fair in running a commission that had been previously tarnished by favoritism to political insiders.
Driscoll announced his candidacy for governor in 1946. He was an underdog, but his reputation as an able and honest administrator helped him defeat former governor Harold G. Hoffman by a decisive margin in the Republican primary, then win the general election by a record plurality.
Driscoll was an innovative governor. When he took office, he sought to revise the century-old constitution, which allowed governors a single three-year term, permitted vetoes to be overridden by simple legislative majorities, provided one-year terms for members of the assembly, and defined a clumsy, top-heavy court system. Driscoll built public support for a new constitutional convention, which was approved by the legislature and a statewide referendum.
New Jersey's 1947 constitution, which was shaped by Driscoll and approved by referendum, established a bill of rights and extended the governor's term to four years. It further specified that the governor was the only statewide elected official, and that other constitutional offices, including attorney general, secretary of state, and treasurer, were to be filled by gubernatorial appointment. The governor's veto power was strengthened, and he was given the power to call legislative sessions at will. Under Driscoll's constitution, legislative terms were extended and the more than one hundred independent state agencies created by the legislature were consolidated into not more than twenty. The overlapping court system was reorganized into a unified court system. Driscoll named the members of a state supreme court that was viewed as the finest of its era. It included Chief Justice William Vanderbilt and Justice William Brennan.
Driscoll once said that his only claim to political fame was that he twice defeated Jersey City Democratic boss Frank Hague, who had dominated the state's politics since the 1920's. During the 1947 constitutional convention, Hague threatened to sabotage Driscoll's new constitution. Hague, who controlled Democratic delegates, was still a force to be reckoned with. Driscoll convinced Hague to soften his opposition by guaranteeing $5 million in state revenues for Jersey City. Hague announced his retirement from politics after Driscoll's reelection in 1949.
When Driscoll proposed the New Jersey Turnpike in 1947, there were no multilane, high-speed roads in New Jersey. The state's main highways stretched through small towns and were badly congested. He secured federal aid and sold bonds to finance the turnpike. From 1970 until his death, Driscoll was chairman of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
A progressive in civil rights, Driscoll pushed through antidiscrimination laws, signed an order that desegregated the New Jersey National Guard, and refused to extradite an African American who had escaped from a South Carolina prison camp because, he argued, the prisoner had "amply paid his debt to society. "
Driscoll was New Jersey's favorite-son presidential candidate at the 1948 Republican national convention. In 1952 he was among Dwight D. Eisenhower's key political allies. Senator Robert A. Taft, Eisenhower's rival for the nomination, said that Driscoll's support of Eisenhower was decisive in the outcome of the close contest for the Republican nomination. Though eligible to seek reelection in 1953, Driscoll retired from politics to become president of the Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, a position he held until 1967. Driscoll increased funding for research and development, expanded the company's foreign operations, and boosted profits. Driscoll died at Birdwood, his home in Haddonfield.
Alfred Driscoll is chiefly remembered as the 43rd Governor of New Jersey, serving from 1947 to 1954. During his term, the state constitution was revised, state agencies were restructured. He was also responsible for the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway and the Walt Whitman Bridge linking Camden and Philadelphia.
Driscoll was a deacon and Sunday school teacher at the First Presbyterian Church.
Soft-spoken, with a self-deprecating wit, Driscoll was a good public speaker. With his energy and vitality, he was also a highly effective campaigner.
In May 1932, Driscoll married Antoinette Ware Tatem, the daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent New Jersey family. They had three children.
