Member Spotlight: Bill Graves
From his participation on 3 committees, to serving as a "Vanquish the Villains" co-captain, Bill has been a staple of our organization from its early days.
Let's start with a brief bio: where you're from, when did you come to the area, what you do, that kind of stuff...
My wife, Loraine, & I moved to Tuxedo Park from Vailsberg [West Ward of Newark], in 1982-83. The move was 1 block west & 2 blocks south from our home in Newark. We moved to be in the South Orange Maplewood school system. Our oldest child was two at the time.
I grew up in Monmouth County N.J. & Des Moines, Iowa. I loved Des Moines. It was a great place to be a kid in the 1950s. My friends & I would ride our bicycles to one of the town swimming pools, a couple of miles away, entry was a dime. We left our bikes in the racks with no locks & never had one stolen. Iowa, as was much of the rest of the country, was Eisenhower territory. My mother loved Adlai Stevenson as did many of her friends. I got my learner’s permit to drive at age 14 in Iowa. This enabled one to drive with a parent or licensed driver over the age of 21 in the car. Full driver’s license at 16.
I am an attorney. I’ve been a government lawyer for most of my career: an Assistant Deputy Public Defender in the Essex Adult Region & a Deputy Attorney General representing the N.J. Bureau of Securities. I am retired now, though I still have one big case I am working on.
Can you recall when you first heard about SOMA Action? What made you decide to get involved?
I first heard of SOMA Action at a Newcomers’ Day at the South Orange Library. I was there to promote the Essex Ethical Culture Society, the building at the corner of Prospect & Parker Streets in Maplewood.
Tell us about the main focus of your work with our organization.
I work on the FINCON [Financial Conflicts of Interest], Voting Rights and Political Action Committees. In the current election cycle, I have been making telephone call for Sara Gideon in Maine & Tom Malinowski for reelection in N.J. I am very much for Ranked Choice Voting [they have it in Maine].
Have you been involved in social/political activism prior to SOMA Action? If so, tell us about it.
In the 1980 presidential election season, I was impressed by John Anderson, a Republican Congressman from Illinois. I volunteered for Anderson, passing out flyers & doing other work. I changed my voter registration so I could vote in the Republican primary. Anderson dropped out of the race before the N.J. primary, so the two front-runners were Reagan & Bush. I had no choice: I voted for Harold Stassen.