Judge Chadwick was born in Vincennes, Indiana, January 17, 1884. His family came to Chester from Vincennes in 1890. During his high school years, he was employed as a cub reporter at the Chester Times (now Delaware County Daily Times). He attended the University of Pennsylvania where he was awarded membership in Phi Beta Kappa and was editor-in-chief of the Red and Blue in 1906. Upon graduation, he was a member of a six-man survey team of the United States Department of Agriculture which made the first known crossing of the Florida Everglades by white men.

Judge Chadwick possessed a deep sense of civic and community responsibility and concern for the welfare of his fellow citizens. He organized and was the first president of the Chester Boy Scouts Council in 1916; he organized the Chester Rotary Club (the County's first service club); he served as a director of Sleighton Farm School for Girls, the Chester Boy's Club, the Citizens Council of Delaware County , the Delaware County Board of Assistance, the Chester and Crozer Hospitals, and was President of J. Lewis Crozer Library.

Judge Chadwick was appointed to the office of President Judge of the Orphans' Court of Delaware County in 1945, served for one year, and in 1946 was elected to the United States Congress. In 1956, he served as chief counsel for the U. S. Senate Select Committee on the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 1945, he was named outstanding citizen by the Chester Businessmen's Association and in 1954 received an honorary doctorate of laws degree from the Pennsylvania Military College (now Widener College).

Judge Chadwick died while a resident of the Borough on August 18, 1969. Under the terms of a Trust established by him during his lifetime, he provided funds for various charitable and public purposes. As a result, flowers and other plants have been made available to the Borough and all its residents. The Borough has also received a gift to acquire land in the Valley to be maintained for park and recreation purposes and to preserve open space and wooded areas for posterity. And a substantial gift to the Helen Kate Furness Library will enlarge its facilities in the near future. The benefits to be derived by Valley folk from these gifts will be lasting memorials to this generous and kind person.

Thanks to Harvey Martin, hsmartin@snip.net, for sharing this biography.

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