About J. Frank Raley Jr.
John Frank Raley Jr. (September 13, 1926 – August 21, 2012) was a Maryland politician and an advocate for education, economic development and protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. He was a Democrat, a State Senator, and a member of the Maryland House of Delegates and is widely credited for modernizing St. Mary's County's badly outdated infrastructure (schools, roads, bridges, telecommunications and electric services), thus paving the way for a forty-year period of economic growth and development. He is also credited with getting the Maryland State Legislature to establish St. Mary's College of Maryland as a four-year liberal arts college and served on its board of trustees for years, guiding and advocating for the school's further development. He has been called, by area historians and newspapers, a founder of modern St. Mary's County. It had long depressed the development of the local labor market and had created a widespread pattern of concentrated landholdings, leaving most non-landowning county residents (both Black and White) poor and uneducated.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.