New Statue Honors Morristown's Visionary, Stephen Wiley

MORRISTOWN, NJ — When Stuart Sendell — a white man — adopted an interracial child, his family looked for a more diverse community. He read about Morris schools, fresh off a New Jersey Supreme Court order in 1971 that combined the institutions of urban Morristown and suburban Morris Township under one district.

Stephen Wiley, the attorney who led the court battle to integrate the schools, welcomed Sendell to the community. Wearing his three-piece suit, for which people would come to associate him, Wiley showed Sendell every Morris school.

"He knew winning the lawsuit was only the first stage," Sendell told Patch. "Once you won the lawsuit, you had to make sure you elected the right people to the school board, that you passed the budgets and that there wasn’t any way of undermining what was going to be a national pilot project."

The work of Wiley, who died in 2015, never ended. Sendell believes the ensuing generations must carry on his efforts. That's why Sendell spearheaded efforts for Wiley to stand outside the Morristown & Morris Township Library, as a statue. A dedication ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday.

While Morristown remains the donut hole surrounded by Morris Township, they now largely stand as one community, where Wiley will now remain a permanent presence.

"Steve played a magnificent role in this," Felicia Jamison, who was heavily involved in the merger, told Patch in 2012. "He believed there was one community."

The Work Never Finished

In Wiley's 86 years, he accomplished what would take most several lifetimes. He served as a state senator from 1973-78. He founded Morris Cablevision — the county's first cable company — along with First Morris Bank and Trust and the Morris County United Way.

And he never stopped raising money for institutions. Wiley spearheaded the 2006 expansion of the Morristown & Morris Township Library, according to Director Chad Leinaweaver.

Even when Wiley and his wife bought houses on Hero Island in Lake Champlain and Key West, Florida, he couldn't help himself. Three weeks after they bought the Key West house, the Morristown native volunteered for the library's board and started a capital campaign. He did the same on Hero Island.

"He couldn’t sit still when it came to knowing what institutions needed help and money," Sendell said.

Wiley's efforts helped prevent de facto segregation in Greater Morristown's schools through the only court-ordered merger of suburban and urban school systems in the nation. But Sendell could still sense the prejudice when he and his wife looked for a house in Morris Township.

They met with a realtor and said they wanted to move there because of the school district. The realtor said they don't want to live here, that they should try Madison and Chatham instead.

"Because we’re a white couple, they made assumptions of, ‘This is where you want to live. Not here,’" he said.

The legacy of the white flight to the suburbs remains in much of New Jersey, where primarily white towns surround predominantly Black cities. But Wiley knew that a strong school system was the key to a thriving community, so the integration of both towns felt integral.

Part of his continued efforts after the court order included creating the Morris Educational Foundation — one of the nation's first foundations supporting a public school system.

"Steve Wiley made bold, principled decisions in pursuit of a vision that the Morris School District would act as a great unifying social force," said Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast. "The values that propelled his courageous actions underlie our district's mission — that all students will have equal access to the highest quality education and to exceptional opportunities. His humanity, decency, intelligence and care transformed our community, and he continues to inspire us today."

A Different Side of Wiley

Wiley stood out in the State Senate. You'd hear the senator representing Bayonne, then the one from Hoboken, then the one from Jersey City. Then Wiley would speak, and his diction felt so distinct that it turned into a different level of conversation, Sendell says.

"He was definitely overqualified for a politician, that’s for sure," he said.

As much as he dedicated to public service, Wiley was a private individual. Sendell joked that he wasn't the friend with whom you'd want to get a beer, because even a conversation with him could make one feel underqualified.

Originally, the Community Foundation of New Jersey planned a statue where Wiley would sit on a bench. But Wiley's daughter noted that he built a standing desk for work. Sitting felt too static for a man like Wiley, the man who could never sit still when it came to improving institutions.

Although Wiley was always on the move, later in life, he surprised people.

When Wiley retired — moving from Morris Township to Morristown — he stopped wearing the three-piece suit and began donning flannel. And people kept asking, "Where's the three-piece suit?"

But Wiley changed. He shocked everyone he knew when he began writing poetry, giving the at-times distant person a chance to give everyone a peek into his soul.

That's the side of Wiley that the statue honors. Outside the library, Wiley smiles and stands in flannel, with one hand in his pocket and another holding a book of poetry.

"He was evolving as a person," Sendell said. "It shows the more approachable side of him, which might not have been as apparent when he was quite a formal person before."

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