The Stockton University Foundation and Press of Atlantic City on Monday published a biography of former state Sen. William Gormley, a three-decade Republican legislator who helped shape the Atlantic City region for years.
John Froonjian, a former statehouse reporter at The Press of Atlantic City, authored the biography, which highlights Gormley’s work in building housing, a convention center, a rail terminal, an events hall, a new road, and hotels in Atlantic City. Gormley served in the state Assembly from 1978 to 1982, and then served in the Senate until his 2007 retirement.
“Gormley often shunned the spotlight,” Froonjian said. “He often exerted leadership behind the scenes, influencing agency actions, making deals, and sometimes pressuring others to bend to his policy goals. One of the reasons I wrote the book was the fear that those contributions would be lost to history if they weren’t documented.”
The biography, titled “A Son of the City,” is available for free online.
Froonjian said Gormley, the longtime chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was instrumental in combining the state’s judiciary and the creation of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. He also wrote that the senator took “controversial” stances against semiautomatic assault rifles and investigated racial profiling on the Turnpike.
“This digital book is not an adversarial critique of Gormley. That might disappoint his critics, about which Gormley himself might say, ‘Obviously, not everybody loves me.’ This work is more of an appreciation of Gormley’s career,” Froonjian wrote in the introduction. “Even so, it attempts to create an honest portrait of the senator, including candid descriptions of his style and times when he didn’t succeed.”