Children Pamela Dwyer Stockton Name Bernard Dwyer | Political party Democratic Role American Politician Spouse(s) Lilyan Sudzina Parents Alice Zehrer Dwyer | |
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Full Name Bernard James Dwyer Alma mater Rutgers University-Newark Died October 31, 1998, Edison, New Jersey, United States | ||
Bernard James Dwyer (January 24, 1921 – October 31, 1998) was an American Democratic Party politician, who served as a United States Representative from New Jersey from 1981 to 1993.
Biography
Dwyer was born in Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, New Jersey, to Daniel F. and Alice (Zehrer) Dwyer. A Roman Catholic, he attended public elementary and high schools. He attended Rutgers University-Newark. He served in the United States Navy during World War II (1940–1945). He married Lilyan Sudzina in 1944. They had a daughter, Pamela Dwyer Stockton.
Dwyer was an insurance broker by profession. His political career began when he successfully ran for a seat on the Edison, New Jersey city council, serving 1958–1969. He was elected Mayor of Edison, New Jersey in 1969, serving a single term from 1970 to 1973. Dwyer served as a member of the New Jersey Senate, where he represented the 18th Legislative District from 1974 to 1980.
He was elected to the United States House of Representatives, and served six terms (January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1993). He represented New Jersey's 15th congressional district during his first term, but redistricting after the 1980 Census, shifted him to the 6th district.
Dwyer was the last member of Congress who was also a survivor of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor when he retired in 1992.
Dwyer did not seek reelection in 1992, and retired in 1993. Redistricting after the 1990 Census had merged his district with that of fellow Democrat Frank Pallone.
His papers of 1981 to 1992, are stored at the Rutgers University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They include congressional office files consisting chiefly of documentation accumulated while he was a member of the United States House Committee on Appropriations.
A resident of Metuchen, New Jersey, Dwyer died at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey on October 31, 1998, of a heart attack. He was buried at St. Gertrude's Cemetery in Colonia, New Jersey.