Daley, Richard M.

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Richard M. Daley Soundex Code D400

Wikipedia page about Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley

Richard Michael Daley (born Friday, April 24, 1942) is a former Mayor of Chicago.

Richard M. Daley is the fourth of seven children and eldest son of Richard J. Daley and Eleanor Daley, the late Mayor and First Lady of Chicago. Daley was raised in Bridgeport, a historically Irish American neighborhood located on Chicago's South Side. Daley is a brother of William M. Daley, former White House Chief of Staff and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton; John P. Daley, a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and chairman of the Board's Finance Committee; and Michael Daley, an attorney with Daley & Georges, Ltd., a law firm founded by their father Richard J. Daley, that specializes in zoning law and is often hired by developers to help get zoning changes through the Chicago City Hall. Daley was married to Maggie Daley, nee: Margaret Corbett, until her death on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24, 2011 after a decade-long battle with metastatic breast cancer, which had spread to her bones and liver; Maggie Daley Park in the Chicago Loop commemorates her. They have four children: Nora Daley Conroy, Patrick R. Daley, Elizabeth Daley and Kevin Daley (deceased), all born at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Their second son, Kevin Daley, died at age two of complications from spina bifida in 1981.

Daley graduated from De La Salle Institute (high school) in Chicago and obtained his bachelor's degree from Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island in 1964. In 1962, at age 19, home on Christmas break, Richard M. Daley was ticketed for running a stop sign at Huron Street and Rush Street, and the Chicago Sun-Times headline was "Mayor's Son Gets Ticket, Uses No Clout," with a subhead reading "Quiet Boy."

Daley earned a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University. He passed the Illinois Bar Examination on his third try. Daley later reflected, "I flunked the bar exam twice. I had to keep studying harder and harder and harder. I passed it the third time." Daley never tried a case.

Daley was elected to his first party office as a delegate to the 1969 Illinois Constitutional Convention. After his father died in 1976, Daley succeeded his father as the 11th Ward Democratic Ward Committeeman, a party post, until succeeded in the post by his brother John P. Daley in 1980. With brother John P. Daley holding the post from 1980 to the present, a Daley has held the post of 11th Ward Committeeman for 60 years.

At 22 years, he was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his father, Richard J. Daley.