William F. Dowd, Longtime Monmouth GOP Chair, Dies at 74
William F. Dowd, 1943-2018
Bill Dowd, the longtime Monmouth Republican Chairman and a former State Assemblyman passed away on Saturday night. He was 74 years old.
NewJerseyGlobe was the first to report Dowd’s passing.
Born on November 11, 1943 in Long Branch, Dowd graduated from Seton Hall University in 1966 and earned his law degree from Rutgers in 1970.
He was a Confidential Assistant to U.S. Treasury Secretary David Kennedy in 1969 and a Staff Assistant in the Nixon White House in 1969 and 1970. He served in the NJ General Assembly 1978-1982. He ran for Congress at the age of 26 in 1970 and again in 1972. He was the Monmouth County Republican Chairman from 1986 through 2004.
“He was brilliant – published in the New York Times more than just about any Republican- and a truly independent spirit. In a world where there are far too few of those. He was a dear friend of William F.Buckley and Declan O’Scanlon, proving one could span a wide range of intellectual challenge,” State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon told NewJerseyGlobe. “He loved dogs, those of four legs and those of merely two. I was lucky to have known him. Monmouth County was lucky to have benefited from his leadership.”
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A true renaissance man, educated, mercurial and steadfast all in one. Like the old style Irish pols, I remember him holding court at the Dublin House. You knew where to find him and he was helpful and hilarious. Big picture solutions and along with Judy Stanley and Pete Carton and others protecting Monmouth County quality of life. Great story teller with a memory.
Speaking of memory, a funny story I have heard too often. Whenever and I mean whenever I was with Bill and anyone else he would recount how he met me when we in the sauna of the YMCA naked with towels on after I was first elected to the AH Council. He got a big kick out of seeing me turn red.
He called me one day and asked me to meet him down at Dublin House where he asked if I would consider becoming a Monmouth County Park Recreation Commissioner which I still am today. He reached out to so many throughout the County.
Bill Dowd made a difference in Monmouth County. RIP
Could do the jobs of three or more consultants, at once: write and type press releases, letters to editors, ( faster than anyone, in more than one tone/ vernacular,) compose and lay out brochure copy, while barking orders, talking to the papers and interviewing candidates, all while cracking jokes, and schmoozing/ dialing for dollars. We all had to move fast to keep up!..Somehow, it all got done, and we just assumed another big victory party, each year, complete with a tote board and balloon arch to intro the winners from, to the standing room only crowd- “ Keeping Monmouth Green,” being on our floats in the St Pat’s parades, right in the Dems’ faces, and the green stationery with the county map made into the elephant, were all his hat-tips to his “luck of the Irish,” and it worked, for a long time.. tough to deal with at times, yet always ahead of most, and, of the opposition- which we need to try and emulate more now, as well as putting pressure on the towns to turn out more voters, for the whole ticket..is sad he didn’t make Congress, he’d have been a great, mad, loud Conservative voice, for our Republic.. RIP, Bill..