Richardson Dilworth

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For the money manager to the Rockefeller family, see J. Richardson Dilworth.

Richardson Dilworth (1898 - 1974), was an American Democratic Party politician, born in the Pittsburgh area, who served as the 116th Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from January 2, 1956 until his resignation on February 12, 1962 to run for Governor, a race in which he was defeated by William Scranton.

Along with Joseph S. Clark and others, he was at the forefront of a post-World War II reform movement in Philadelphia which led to the adoption of a modern city charter that consolidated city and county offices and introduced civil service examinations on a broad scale to replace much of the existing patronage structure.

In 1951, he was elected city district attorney; Clark was elected mayor. As Democrats, they ended a 67-year unbroken tenure of Republican control of the city (and instituted what has now become over 55 years of continuous Democratic control). During their tenures as mayor, Clark and Dilworth introduced a variety of reforms and innovations, including extensive high-rise public housing which, a generation later, was condemned by many as a breeding ground for poverty and crime.

With his wife, Ann, he was a passenger on the SS Andrea Doria, an ocean liner that collided with the SS Stockholm near Nantucket, Massachusetts on July 25, 1956 and subsequently sank.

Following his tenure as Mayor, he served as Partner in the Philadelphia-based law firm of Dilworth Paxson LLP, which bears his name. He also served as president of the Philadelphia school board, and in 1971 was appointed one of two bankruptcy trustees (along with Andrew L. Lewis, Jr.) for the Reading Company, the railroad company headquartered in Philadelphia.

His grandson, Dr. Richardson Dilworth, is a professor of History and Politics at Drexel University and authored the book The Urban Origins of Suburban Autonomy