Walter Rand Explained

Walter Rand
State Senate1:New Jersey
District1:5th
Term Start1:January 12, 1982
Term End1:January 6, 1995
Predecessor1:Angelo Errichetti
Successor1:Wayne R. Bryant
State Assembly2:New Jersey
District2:5th
Term Start2:January 13, 1976
Term End2:January 12, 1982
Predecessor2:Ronald J. Casella
Successor2:Wayne R. Bryant
Francis J. Gorman
Birth Date:31 May 1919
Birth Place:Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Death Place:Camden, New Jersey
Party:Democratic

Walter Rand (May 31, 1919 – January 6, 1995), born Walter Rappaport, was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who was a specialist on transportation issues while serving in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature. Rand was a resident of Bellmawr.[1]

Biography

Rand was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and attended the University of Pennsylvania. He moved to Camden, where he was an elected member of the board of education of the Camden City Public Schools from 1971 to 1974.[1] He was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1975 and to the New Jersey Senate in 1981, where he was a former chairman of the Senate Transportation and Public Utilities Committee.[1]

Rand sponsored laws that created New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund, which combined aid received from the Federal government, state appropriations and highway bond proceeds to pay for an accelerated road building and repair program. He wrote the bill that led to creation of the South Jersey Transportation Authority and allowed Atlantic City International Airport to expand.[1] After Rand's death in 1995, Wayne R. Bryant was named to fill his seat in the State Senate. The Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden is named in his honor, as is the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs established at the Rutgers–Camden campus in 1999.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Sullivan, Joseph F. "Walter Rand, 75, New Jersey Senator And Transit Expert", The New York Times, January 7, 1995. Accessed December 27, 2013. "State Senator Walter Rand, a specialist on transportation issues during his 20 years in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature, died today at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center here. A resident of Bellmawr, a Camden suburb, he was 75."
  2. http://wrand.rutgers.edu/history History of the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs