Trustees of the Morristown Green dedicate ‘Wiley Beech’

Tuesday in Morristown was just another day at the beech — “Wiley Beech.”

Trustees of the Morristown Green dedicated a young Copper Beech tree to Steve Wiley, the retired Morristown lawyer whose prodigious fundraising helped beautify the Green, restore the Community Theatre and expand the Morristown & Township Library.

Steve’s daughter, Katie Laud, smiled and dubbed the spot “Wiley Beech.”

Her father will be honored at the Morris Museum on May 10 for his pivotal roles in forging the Morris School District 40 years ago and the Morris Educational Foundation two decades ago. The anniversaries also will be celebrated with festivities at the high school on May 20.

“He’d be very happy about this. He planted Copper Beeches at our house when we were growing up,” said Katie, representing the family at the tree dedication. She noted that woodworking is among her dad’s talents, which also include poetry.

Plenty of Wileys plan to attend this week’s gala at the museum. At 82, however, Steve is not up to making the trip from Vermont.

“If it were up to him he would have come down. But Mom said no,” for health reasons, said Katie, chief financial officer for Homeless Solutions Inc. in Morristown.

Proceeds from the gala will endow a Stephen B. Wiley Scholarship in Morristown.

Glenn Coutts, president of the Trustees of the Green, grew up with “Willie” and was his teammate on Morristown High School’s unbeaten 1947 football team. He described his friend as a straight-A student, an accomplished athlete, and a go-to guy for decades.

“The reason the Green looks like it does is because of Steve,” Glenn said, citing a successful $4.7 million fund drive.  “If we had a problem in this world, we would go to Steve and he would straighten it out.”

“Steve was a very creative person,” added Trustee Dick Descovick, a founder of the First Morris Bank (now Provident Bank) with Steve. “Steve could make anything work.”

Copper Beech trees were a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, who planted them at Monticello. Their purple leaves turn deep green in summer; they are considered hardy trees that can live for 200 years.

In his invocation, Pastor Neill Tolboom of the Morristown United Methodist Church said the tree would look over Morristown and take care of the town “as Steve did,” while reminding generations of visitors that “Steve was behind so much of this.”

Trustees Alice Cutler, Gretchen Braunschweiger, Carl Badenhaus, George Bellias and Jean Rich took part in the brief ceremony.

The tree’s bucolic home, near East Park Place, gives no hint of Steve Wiley’s turbulent times. His daughter said he is proudest of the merger of schools in Morristown and Morris Township–a battle to preserve diversity at Morristown High School that Steve took all the way to the state Supreme Court in 1971.

As a Democratic state senator from Republican Morris County in the 1970s, he also sponsored the bill that created New Jersey’s income tax, as a means of funding education.

“We had protesters outside the house. It was dangerous at times,” said Katie. “I couldn’t go outside at night. That’s the price you pay.”