William H. STUCKY ^{1 2}

  Noted events in his life were:

• Census: 1860: Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey. ⁴

• Census: 1880: Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. ⁵

• Occupation: 1880 Spoke Turner.

• Obituary/Death Notice: Newark Evening News, 20 Dec 1946. ⁶ Private funeral services were held in Linden yesterday for William H. Stucky. one of Newark's most colorful oldtime police figures. His home was at 122 Chadwick avenue. He died Wednesday at the age of 86. Rev. Dr. Edmund A. Wasson, rector emeritus of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, officiated.
Mr. Stucky served in the police department from January 20, 1891 to May 1, 1915. He began as a chanceman and worked up through the ranks. At the time of his retirement he was a captain.
But his police career was only part of the colorful life of Bill Stucky, as he was known.
Heavyweight pugilist, soldier, police captain, horseman, marksman, movie actor, swimmer, bowler and wheelwright. Mr. Stucky was all of these and excelled at most of them. He kept himself in top form by his healthful hobbies and retired early enough in his life to enjoy them to the full. He was born in Newark, May 8, 1860.
In 1888, Mr. Stucky participated in the first tournament of any kind sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Union, when he entered the national boxing championship contest. Never having worn gloves in the ring before, he entered the middleweight class at 158 pounds. He wore a full Van Dyke beard. He was soon eliminated, but the next year he again entered the middleweight class and finished second. The beard was gone but he wore a mustache.
Illness kept Mr. Stucky out of the 1890 contests, but in 1891 he won the national amateur middleweight crown. In 1892 he entered both the middleweight and heavyweight divisions but was defeated in the middleweight opener by an injury which kept him out of the heavyweight contest. His friends thought he was through as a boxer but in 1893 he won both the middleweight and heavyweight Metropolitan A.A.U. championships held in Newark. He then retired from the ring.
Mr. Stucky credited his 10 years spent as a wheelwright in the old Phineas Jones & Co. plant in Newark with developing the strong right arm which carried him to the top in boxing.
His physical prowess and his love of horses led him to join the police force. He was a member of the first squad of mounted Newark police. In November, 1913, he was promoted to captain and placed in charge of the mounted men of all precincts, horse and motorcycle. He had been named instructor of the Police School shortly before he retired in April, 1915, at the age of 45. Because of his skill with the baton, Mr. Stucky was chosen 16 consecutive years to lead the Newark police in Memorial Day parades. His skill as a rider caused him to be selected to head mounted police whenever an escort was required for visiting celebrities in Newark. For several years he was pistol and revolver instructor in the Newark Police Department. Bill joined Essex Troop in 1908.
Mr. Stucky joined Essex Troop in 1908. For six successuve years he won expert rifleman medals at Sea Girt as a member of the troop. In 1914 and 1915 he qualified as an expert at long range rifle shooting. In 1915 he demonstrated his horsemanship by riding 90 miles in three days as a member of Essex Troops. In 1916 he spent four months on the Mexican border with the troop as mess sergeant.
For many years, Mr. Stucky spent his summers at Belmar, where he indulged his love of swimming. Although he never set any records in contests, he won many impromptu matches in the Passaic River and Newark Bay. While at Belmar, in 1926, when he was 66 years old, he rescued three persons from drowning in the ocean.
As a bowler, Bill was a member of several Masonic League championship teams. He was one of the Euroka Lodge quintet when it won the Essex County championship. He also was fond of cross-country running and won the mile event put on for memebers of the police force by the Riverside Athletic Club.
While stopping in Florida in 1916 Bill became interested in a movie studio there. He appeard in the "Sis Hopkins" series of silent pictures and in "Over the Top," a World War I film.
Mr. Stucky, whose wife, Mrs. Ida Webb Stucky, died several years ago, leaves a son, Frank W. of Sea Girt, a daughter, Miss Edna G. Stucky of Newark; a brother, John of Newark, and four sisters, Mrs. William Mershon and Miss Elizabeth Stucky of Newark, Mrs. Ida Stasse of South Orange and Mrs. William Condit of West Orange. A brother, Stephen of Newark, died two months ago.

William married Ida Selina WEBB.