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| Affiliation | Democratic |
 |
| Name | Joseph T. Sharkey |
| Address |
Brooklyn, New York , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
00, 1893 |
| Died |
January 01, 1991
(98 years) |
| Contributor | nystate63 |
| Last Modifed | David
Jan 23, 2022 02:47pm |
| Tags |
Married - Army -
|
| Info | Year of birth is speculative. His obituary indicated he was 97 when he passed.
New York City Councilman, 1938-66 (Majority Leader, 1940-62); Acting City Council President, 1950-52.
Joseph T. Sharkey, who was prominent in Brooklyn Democratic politics for more than three decades and president of the New York City Council from 1949 to 1951, died on Tuesday at the St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J. He was 97 years old and lived in Brooklyn.
He died of a respiratory ailment, his family said.
A bluff, hearty man, Joe Sharkey served for 33 years on the Council and its predecessor, the Board of Aldermen. He was the Council's majority leader from 1940 through 1961, when he was unseated in a fight among Democratic Party factions. He remained a Council member until 1965, when he retired to devote full time to a second career in banking. Born Into the Party
Mr. Sharkey was virtually born into the Democratic Party in Brooklyn. His father, Thomas, was a district captain in the Williamsburg section, and his mother, Catherine, was the co-leader in the district for nine years; there were no female leaders at the time.
After World War I service in Army ordnance and with the War Shipping Board, the son went to work for the city in 1920 as an inspector of plants and combustibles in the Fire Department. Attending New York University at night, he also held a Federal Civil Service job as an accountant.
Mr. Sharkey worked his way upward in politics, and in 1933 was elected an alderman. During his years as a city legislator he introduced more than 700 bills. He was the principal sponsor of the city's first rent-control law, but it later was ruled unconstitutional. In 1940 the Council, solidly Democratic, made him its majority leader.
In 1949, when Mayor William O'Dwyer suddenly resigned and Council President Vincent R. Impellitteri became acting Mayor, Mr. Sharkey succeeded to the Council presidency.
But when he sought election to a full term two years later, he was defeated by Rudolph W. Halley. Mr. Halley, who had achieved instant fame as counsel to United States Senator Estes Kefaufer in televised hearings into organized crime, received the Liberal Party's endorsement to run against Mr. Sharkey.
Mr. Sharkey remained on the Council as majority leader and became Brooklyn Democratic leader as well in 1953. He was an early supporter of John F. Kennedy for President in the 1960 campaign but was purged from his leadership post a year later when he opposed the bid of his longtime personal friend, Robert F. Wagner, for a third term as mayor.
Mr. Sharkey, meantime, had become a director of the Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and in 1961 he was named the bank's chairman. When he left the Council four years later, he became chairman, president and chief executive of the bank, posts he held until 1975, when he retired. He then became an owner of the Barnhill Nursing Home in Newton, N.J.
He is survived by his wife, the former Helen Flaherty, whom he married in 1935; three daughters, Joan Farrell of Belle Harbor, Queens, Catherine Caulfield of Short Hills, N.J., and Helen Pedersen-Robson of Mission Viejo, Calif.; 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
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