Karl Weidel

Karl Weidel III (September 27, 1923 – January 31, 1997) [Social Security Death Index via [http://www.ancestry.com/ Ancestry.com] .] was an American Republican Party politician from New Jersey, who served in the New Jersey General Assembly.cite web
url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/weems-weinland.html
title=Index to Politicians: Weemes to Weinland
accessdate=2008-10-11
last=Kestenbaum
first=Lawrence
work=The Political Graveyard]

Weidel was born in 1923 in Trenton, New Jersey. [http://books.google.com/books?id=1ClMAAAAMAAJ "Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey"] . J.A. Fitzgerald (1977), p. 230.] His father, Karl Weidel, Jr., ran an insurance and real estate brokerage, established in 1915. He attended Trenton Catholic High School, Duke University, and Rutgers Law School. During World War II he joined the United States Navy and became a pilot. Upon his return from World War II, he entered the family business, taking over the insurance division in 1949.cite web
url=http://www.weidel.com/getagent/Pages.php?Page=0000524855
title=Our History
accessdate=2008-10-11
publisher=Weidel Realtors]

Weidel was a resident of Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey. He became the first Republican in a generation elected to the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 1966. He was first elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1971. In the New Jersey General Assembly he worked on no-fault insurance reform and also supported the "right-to-die" movement during the legal battle over Karen Ann Quinlan.cite news
first=Seamus
last=McGraw
title=Ex-assemblyman will be buried near N.J. capitol
url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22387467.html
work=The Record
publisher=North Jersey Media Group
date=1997-02-03
accessdate=2008-10-11]

Weidel resigned from the Assembly in 1986 to take a position as executive director of the Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund in the New Jersey Department of Insurance. His vacant seat was filled by Richard Kamin. Weidel retired from state government in 1990.

On January 31, 1997, Weidel committed suicide by jumping to his death from the top of a Trenton parking garage. He was 73. [cite news
title=Former Assemblyman jumps off parking garage building
agency=Associated Press via Factiva
date=1997-01-31
accessdate=2008-10-11] [cite news
title=Ailing ex-legislator leaps to his death
url=http://wawa.starledger.com/texis/search/ttfree.html
first=John
last=McGourty
work=The Times (Trenton)
date=1997-02-01
accessdate=2008-10-11] [cite news
title=Karl Weidel Dies In Fatal Plunge
url=http://wawa.starledger.com/texis/search/hdfree.html
work=Hunterdon County Democrat
date=1997-02-06
accessdate=2008-10-11]

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