William D. Becker, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetWilliam D. Becker
American mayor
Date of Birth: 23-Oct-1876
Place of Birth: East St. Louis, Illinois, United States
Date of Death: 01-Aug-1943
Profession: politician
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio 
About William D. Becker
- William Dee Becker (October 23, 1876, in East St.
- Louis, Illinois – August 1, 1943, in St.
- Louis, Missouri) was the 35th Mayor of St.
- Louis, from 1941 to 1943. Becker, the son of German immigrants, graduated from Harvard University and St.
- Louis Law School.
- After 15 years of private law practice, he was elected to a twelve-year term on the St.
- Louis Court of Appeals in 1916.
- He was re-elected for second 12-year term in 1928.
- In 1941 Becker was the Republican Party nominee for Mayor of St.
- Louis.
- He defeated incumbent Mayor Bernard F.
- Dickmann (a Democrat) who was seeking election to a third term in the April 1941 election. Perhaps the most significant development during Becker's term as mayor was the adoption of a civil service amendment to the City Charter.
- The amendment enacted a merit system for the hiring of city employees.
- Prior to that time, a political patronage system prevailed in which all city employees could be replaced with a change of partisan administration.
- Becker supported the civil service reform and it was approved by the voters in September 1941.
- Becker also retained Raymond Tucker who had been appointed Smoke Commissioner by Mayor Dickmann and supported his efforts to reduce air pollution within the city.
- On the Sunday afternoon of August 1, 1943, St.
- Louis aircraft manufacturer William B.
- Robertson was hosting the first public demonstration of a new Waco CG-4 glider, built under sub-contract by his company.
- As a crowd of spectators watched at the Lambert St.
- Louis Airport, Mayor Becker, Robertson, and other St.
- Louis luminaries boarded the glider that was towed along by a transport plane for a flight over the city.
- Immediately after the release of the towing cable, the right-wing of the glider broke off, and it plummeted from an altitude of 1,500 feet, killing all ten persons on board.
- Becker was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery.
- Aloys P.
- Kaufmann, president of the city's Board of Aldermen, succeeded Becker as Mayor of St.
- Louis.
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