Dorothy Wilken

Last updated

Dorothy H. Wilken (born 1936) is an American politician and former clerk of courts. Wilken was a major proponent for the annexation of the community of University Park into the larger city of Boca Raton, Florida, during the early 1970s. She later served as the first female Mayor of Boca Raton and a Palm Beach County commissioner. [1] [2] [3]

Wilken was born in Annville Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. [1] In 1965, she moved to Boca Raton, Florida, to take a job with Florida Atlantic University. [1] She graduated from Emma Willard School, Troy NY and George Washington University Columbian College in Washington, DC and earned her MPA at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton FL.[ citation needed ]

Wilken, a resident of the former town of University Park, Florida, during the early 1970s, was a strong proponent for the annexation of the smaller town into the city of Boca Raton. [2] [3] Residents of Boca Raton and University Park approved the merger in a referendum held on July 27, 1971. [2] [3]

Wilken only the second woman to serve of the Boca Raton city council. [1] Boca Raton city meeting minutes and the Boca Raton Historical Society indicate that another woman, Floy Mitchell, had previously served briefly on the council. [1]

In March 1976, the Boca Raton city council elected Wilken as the city's mayor. She was the first woman to serve as Mayor of Boca Raton. [1] She served as Mayor from March 1976 to February 1977, and again, briefly, during April 1977 following the resignation of Mayor Dick Houpana, who resigned just one month into his second term. [1] [4] The city established park impact fees and purchased the South Inlet Beach during Wilken's tenure. [1] She also founded the Citizens for Reasonable Growth. [1]

Dorothy Wilken was later elected as a Palm Beach County commissioner, first elected in 1982, and a clerk of courts [2] [3] in 1992, retiring in 2005.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boca Raton, Florida</span> City in Palm Beach County, Florida

Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 97,422 in the 2020 census and it ranked as the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. However, many people with a Boca Raton postal address live outside of municipal boundaries, such as in West Boca Raton. As a business center, the city also experiences significant daytime population increases. A part of South Florida, Boca Raton is 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami and is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which had a population of 6,138,333 at the 2020 United States Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palm Beach County, Florida</span> County in Florida, United States

Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 26th-most populous in the United States, with 1,492,191 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is West Palm Beach, which had a population of 117,415 as of 2020. Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Miami -Dade County. The county's modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palm Springs, Florida</span> Village in Florida, United States

Palm Springs is a village in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, situated approximately 61 mi (98 km) north of Miami. The village's name was likely derived from the resort city of Palm Springs, California. Located in the east-central part of the county, Palm Springs is situated north of Atlantis, east of Greenacres, west of Lake Clarke Shores and Lake Worth Beach, and southwest of West Palm Beach. The 2010 United States census recorded the village's population at 18,928, which increased to 26,890 in the 2020 census. Palm Springs is also located within the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida, which had a population of approximately 6,138,333 people as of 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riviera Beach, Florida</span> City in Florida, United States

Riviera Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, which was incorporated on September 29, 1922. Due to the location of its eastern boundary, it is also the easternmost municipality in the Miami metropolitan area. In the 2020 U.S. Census, the total population of Riviera Beach residents was 37,604 people.

Theresa LePore is a former Supervisor of Elections for Palm Beach County, Florida. She designed the infamous "butterfly ballot" used in the 2000 presidential election. This would lead the press to nickname her "Madame Butterfly". Following the controversial results of the 2000 election, she lost her re-election bid in September 2004 and left office in January 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Morikami</span>

Sukeji "George" Morikami was a Japanese immigrant to the United States who farmed in Palm Beach County, Florida, for more than 65 years. He donated his 200 acres of farm land to Palm Beach County in 1973.

WXEL-TV is a PBS member television station licensed to Boynton Beach, Florida, United States, serving the West Palm Beach area. Owned by South Florida PBS, it is a sister station to Miami-based flagship and fellow PBS member WPBT and Class A station WURH-CD. The three stations share transmitter facilities on Northwest 199th Street in Andover; WXEL's studios are located on South Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach. WXEL, WPBT, and WURH-CD are also broadcast by a translator in Fort Pierce.

Mary Ballard McCarty is a politician and former County Commissioner in Palm Beach County, Florida, and served in office from November 1990 until resigning for corruption, announced on January 8, 2009. McCarty resigned from the Board of County Commissioners after she pleaded guilty to one count of honest services fraud. The charges stemmed from votes on projects that indirectly benefited her husband, Kevin McCarty a former employee of Raymond James, without the required disclosure and she received reduced hotel rates from a company that did business with Palm Beach County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven L. Abrams</span> American politician

Steven L. Abrams is an American politician. He was the first mayor of Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida. He previously served as chairman of the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners and represented District 4 on the county commission. Abrams formerly served as chairman and executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority. He is the former mayor of the City of Boca Raton, Florida.

WFLV is a contemporary Christian formatted radio station in West Palm Beach, Florida, owned by the Educational Media Foundation and branded as K-Love. WFLV airs Contemporary worship music on its HD2 subchannel, branded as Air1 and has a Christian radio format on its HD3 subchannel, branded as Family Radio.

The history of the Jews in South Florida dates back to the 19th century. Many South Florida Jews are Ashkenazi, and Latin American. Many are also French, Moroccan, Syrian, Bukharian, and Israeli. There is a significant Sephardic and Mizrachi population as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Abruzzo</span> American politician (born 1980)

Joseph Abruzzo is a Democratic politician from Florida. He serves as the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller for Palm Beach County, an independently elected office established by Florida’s Constitution.

John Prince Memorial Park is a park located in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. The park covers 726.36 acres and is managed by the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department. Most of the park is on the western and northern shore of Lake Osborne. Some of the facilities at the park include: a new five section dog park called Lake Woof, pavilions, park ground structures, tennis courts, basketball courts, volleyball courts, boat/canoe/kayak launch, outdoor fitness center, and a campground. The park is located adjacent to the Lantana Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Hager (Florida politician)</span> American politician (1947–2021)

Bill Hager was an American politician from Florida. He served four terms in the Florida House of Representatives as a Republican, representing parts of coastal Palm Beach County from 2010 to 2018.

West Boca Raton, also known as West Boca, is an unincorporated community west of the city of Boca Raton, Florida. It is populated by numerous developments such as Boca Landings, The Hamptons, Mission Bay, Sandalfoot Cove, Century Village, and Loggers' Run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Hanson</span> American politician (1934–2017)

Carol G. Hanson was an American politician. Hanson served as a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 1982 to 1994 as a Republican Party. In March 1995, she was elected Mayor of Boca Raton, Florida, a nonpartisan office, serving from April 1995 until March 2001.

Helen Wilkes was an American businesswoman, nurse and politician. Wilkes, who served as a city commissioner of West Palm Beach, Florida, from 1976 to 1988, became the city's first female Mayor in 1978.

Desoto Tiger was a Seminole from a Creek-speaking camp near Indiantown, Florida, and the son of Cow Creek chief Tommy Tiger. In December 1911, Tiger was taking a bundle of ninety otter hides trapped by himself and others to market at a trading post, when he gave a ride in his canoe to John Ashley. On December 29, 1911, a dredging crew working near Lake Okeechobee discovered Tiger's body. Ashley had been seen travelling with Tiger by Tiger's uncle, Jimmy Gopher, so a group of Seminole pursued Ashley to Miami, but were too late to find him. They did, however, find the furs with unmistakable Seminole markings at Girtman Brothers fur traders in Miami, who related that they had purchased the bundle of otterskins from John Ashley for $1200. The Palm Beach County commissioners voted to offer a reward for the apprehension of Tiger's murderer, and asked then governor Albert W. Gilchrist to fund the reward, which was done in the amount of $150 on January 15, 1912. This was Ashley's first crime, and launched a career of misdeeds that earned him the name King of the Everglades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1991 West Palm Beach mayoral election</span>

The West Palm Beach mayoral election took place on November 5, 1991, to elect a mayor for West Palm Beach, Florida. Officially, elections for mayor of West Palm Beach are nonpartisan. Prior to this election, the city operated under a council–manager government system since 1919, with the city commissioners choosing the mayor, a mostly ceremonial office that had less power than the city manager. However, in March 1991, voters approved a referendum to allow a strong mayor and to transition the city government to a mayor-council structure. Thus, it was the first direct election for mayor of West Palm Beach since 1919.

Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. Its history dates back to about 12,000 years ago, shortly after when Native Americans migrated into Florida. Juan Ponce de León became the first European in the area, landing at the Jupiter Inlet in 1513. Diseases from Europe, enslavement, and warfare significantly diminished the indigenous population of Florida over the next few centuries. During the Second Seminole War, the Battles of the Loxahatchee occurred west of modern-day Jupiter in 1838. The Jupiter Lighthouse, the county's oldest surviving structure, was completed in 1860. The first homestead claims were filed around Lake Worth in 1873. The county's first hotel, schoolhouse, and railway, the Celestial Railroad, began operating in the 1880s, while the first settlers of modern-day Lake Worth Beach arrived in 1885. During the 1890s, Henry Flagler and his workers constructed the Royal Poinciana Hotel and The Breakers in Palm Beach and extended the Florida East Coast Railway southward to the area. They also developed a separate city for hotel workers, which in 1894 became West Palm Beach, the county's oldest incorporated municipality. Major Nathan Boynton, Congressman William S. Linton, and railroad surveyor Thomas Rickards also arrived in the 1890s and developed communities that became Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton, respectively.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Mayors of Boca Raton". Boca Raton Historical Society . Archived from the original on 2013-11-15. Retrieved 2013-07-14.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kleinberg, Eliot (2003-10-22). "Palm Beach Past: The Best of "Post Time"". Palm Beach Post . ISBN   9781596291157 . Retrieved 2013-07-14.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Kleinberg, Eliot (2003-10-22). "Boca's University Park Once A Town". Palm Beach Post . Archived from the original on 2013-07-17. Retrieved 2013-07-14.
  4. ↑ Kleinberg, Eliot (2003-10-22). "Palm Beach Past: The Best of "Post Time" page 49". Palm Beach Post . ISBN   9781596291355 . Retrieved 2013-07-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.