John Dryden Kuser

John Dryden Kuser (b. September 24, 1897 - d. March 3, 1964 [http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=haruspex&id=I095751] ) was a New Jersey politician and a member of an influential New Jersey family. His father, Anthony R. Kuser, was the President of the South Jersey Gas and Electric Lighting Company and one of the original investors in Fox Movie Studios. Col. Kuser had served on the staffs of three New Jersey governors in the late 1800s, and in 1923, donated his convert|10500|acre|km2|sing=on estate to become High Point State Park, the largest public park in New Jersey. His grandfather was John Fairfield Dryden, the founder of Prudential Insurance Company and a United States Senator from 1902 to 1907.

In 1919, Kuser married 17-year-old Brooke Russell (later known as Brook Astor), and they had a child, Anthony. Brooke later characterized the marriage as one of physical abuse, alcoholism and adultery. [Miller, Judith. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2DA1231F934A25752C1A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 "Old Money, New Needs"] , "The New York Times", November 17, 1991. Accessed November 4, 2007. "Her 10-year marriage to Dryden Kuser, a wealthy Princeton graduate who fell madly in love with her at a commencement prom, was a disaster from the start. A drunk and a womanizer, Kuser occasionally beat his young bride."]

Kuser launched his political career in 1922, at age 25, winning election as a Bernardsville, New Jersey Councilman. He was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly two years later, and won a seat in the New Jersey Senate in 1929. His wife Brooke filed for divorce in 1930, after the Senate election; Kuser remarried (to Vieva Fisher Banks) on September 3 of that same year.

During his six years as State Senator, Kuser's top accomplishment was the passage of legislation that designated the eastern goldfinch as New Jersey's state bird.

Kuser's political career came to an end in 1935 when his second wife divorced him amidst allegations of abuse and cruelty. Democratic Assemblyman James Bowers captured Kuser's State Senate seat that year. Three months later, Kuser married a secretary on the Nevada State Senate staff. He moved to Reno, Nevada, where he became a newspaper columnist. He returned to New Jersey in the late 1950s (after his fourth marriage ended) and worked as a consultant to the New Jersey Department of Conservation and Economic Development until his death in 1964 at age 66.

References

ources

[http://politics.nexcess.net/insideedge/2007/01/her_name_is_not_virginia_litte.html Inside Edge: New Jersey Politics, Jan. 2007]