Brendan Byrne (1 April 1924-4 January 2018) was the Democratic Governor of New Jersey from 15 January 1974 to 19 January 1982, succeeding William T. Cahill and preceding Thomas Kean.
Biography[]
Brendan Thomas Byrne was born in West Orange, New Jersey in 1924, and he served in the US Army during World War II, serving as a navigator aboard B-17 bombers. He obtained his law degree from Harvard in 1951 and worked as a private attorney in Newark and East Orange before serving as executive secretary to Governor Robert B. Meyner, as Essex County Prosecutor from 1959 to 1968, as president of the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners from 1968 to 1970, on the superior court from 1970 to 1973, and as Governor from 1974 to 1982. Byrne implemented New Jersey's first state income tax, established spending limits for all levels of government in New Jersey, and issued rebate checks to offset their property taxes. Afterwards, he became a lawyer in Roseland, and he died in Livingston in 2018.