Meyner was born on July 3, 1908, in Easton, Pennsylvania, to Gustave Herman Meyner, Sr. (1878–1950) and Maria Sophia Bäumle (1881–1968). His father was a German American silk worker from Manchester, New Hampshire. His mother was German, but born in Birsfelden near Basel, in Switzerland, to Robert Bäumle from Harpolingen, Baden and to Franziska Oliva Thüring from Istein, Baden. Robert had an older brother, Gustave Herman Meyner Jr. (1907–1996). He also had a younger sister, Olive F. Meyner Wagner (1913–1982).[1]
While still in school, Meyner had been employed as an apprentice coremaker by the Warren Foundry and Pipe Corporation and Ingersoll Rand. During his college years, Meyner was employed as a weaver by the Gunning Silk Company. Following his graduation from Columbia, Meyner found employment as a law clerk in Union City. He was employed by J. Emil Walscheid and Milton Rosenkranz from February, 1933 to April, 1936.[1]
Career
Meyner returned to Phillipsburg in 1936, where he quickly became a well-known trial lawyer.[citation needed]
Meyner's prominent involvement in civic and social affairs, as well as the recognition it generated, helped him in 1941 during his first bid for elected office. He lost a campaign for a seat in the New Jersey Senate by only fifty votes.[citation needed]
After a failed run for federal office, he was elected to the state senate in 1947. Though he was the Senate Minority Leader in 1950, Meyner lost his seat in the election of 1951.[citation needed]
Governor of New Jersey
Gubernatorial portrait of Meyner.
The ailing New JerseyDemocratic Party chose Meyner as its gubernatorial candidate in 1953, and he achieved a surprise victory, boosted by a minor scandal surrounding his opponent, Paul L. Troast. Meyner's first term was marked by strong support for state education and a general restructuring of the government.[citation needed]
While in his first term as governor, Meyner uncovered Employment Security Division Director (and former governor) Harold G. Hoffman's massive corruption scam, and suspended Hoffman on March 18, 1954. Meyner defeated Malcolm Forbes handily in 1957 in his bid for re-election.[citation needed]
Meyner left office in January 1962. At the time, New Jersey's constitution prohibited governors from serving more than two consecutive terms, but did not place a limit on the total number of terms. After his Democratic successor, Richard J. Hughes had served two terms and was unable to run for a third, the Democratic Party turned back to Meyner as their gubernatorial candidate in 1969. But after 16 years of Democratic administrations, RepublicanWilliam T. Cahill won election over Meyner.[citation needed]
Presidential campaign
In 1958, Time Magazine recognized Meyner as a potential candidate for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination and featured him on the cover of their November 24 edition of that year (along with five other noteworthy Democrats, including John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson).[citation needed]
^http://meynercenter.lafayette.edu/about-the-center/robert-b-meyner/ Robert B. Meyner, The Robert B. & Helen S. Meyner Center for the Study of State & Local Government, Lafayette College. Accessed March 14, 2011. "During his early childhood, Robert Meyner's family moved to Pennsylvania, and then to Phillipsburg and Paterson, New Jersey, and finally settled back in Phillipsburg in 1922, where the family lived in the house on Lincoln Avenue built by Robert Meyner's grandfather, Robert B. Meyner.... Robert Meyner was graduated from Phillipsburg High School in 1926, where he was class valedictorian and a member of the debating team."
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