Representative James Madison Brockway View All Years

JAMES M. BROCKWAY

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character, and public service of the Honorable James M. Brockway, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

James M. Brockway was born January 22, 1879, at Ainsworth, Iowa. His father was E. F. Brockway, a member of this House in the Fifteenth General Assembly. “Jim” Brockway lived in Iowa all of his life and, until he passed away in Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, September 18, 1943, he resided at Letts, in Louisa county.

Mr. Brockway was a graduate of the University of Iowa in 1901, where he was an outstanding athlete. On October 12, 1910, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary M. Horton of Marshalltown. He is survived by his wife and two sons, John H., who is in the Navy, and Charles E., who is in the Army, and a grand-daughter, Judith Ann Brockway.

Mr. Brockway was a member of the House of Representatives in the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth General Assemblies. While in the legislature he was chairman of the roads and highways committee and as such occupied a conspicuous part in directing legislation along the line of better roads. He was joint author of the Balkema-Brockway bill, a measure to give the state a better organization for road building. This was the·bill that created the Iowa Highway Commission and was the foundation upon which the Iowa Primary Road System has been achieved. It may be said that the wonderful system of paved roads, which we enjoy in Iowa, is an enduring monument to “Jim” Brockway.

Following a broad political-legislative experience with the development of road laws, and considerable experience as a truck operator, Mr. Brockway was persuaded to organize the Independent Truckers of Iowa which had its beginnings in and around Muscatine. He waged a continuous fight for improvement of Iowa truck laws. He developed a continually improved mutual understanding between truckers and various state agencies having control over truck operations.

His especial effort was to achieve organization amongst the operators in Iowa. This ambition was realized in the fall of 1942, when the then existing truck groups united into the Iowa Motor Truck Association.

Mr. Brockway was an active member of the Presbyterian Church and an active supporter of temperance reforms.

Of his service and worth as a citizen and public servant this committee feels that it can heartily endorse and adopt the words of Lee H. Forsyth as follows:

“We have lost a friend. ‘Jim’ Brockway was a strong, rugged man—one of Iowa’s great athletes; he was a true, loyal friend—one of nature’s noblemen; he was a devoted servant of the cause in which he believed—a dauntless fighter; he was a model husband and father—a man!”

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Fifty-first General Assembly, That in the death of James M. Brockway, the state mourns the loss of one of its honored and distinguished citizens and the House, by this Resolution, tenders its sincere sympathy to the surviving family in their sorrow; and

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be instructed to send an enrolled copy to the members of the family of the deceased.

F. A. LATCHAW,

WILSON REED,

W. A. BENTS,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted,