Walter S. Melick

Candidate Biography:

Born: March 13, 1863 in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
Married: Claire May Sailor (m. 1893), Grace A. Fuller (m. 1897)
Died: October 8, 1904 in Pasadena, CA

1903-1904: Secretary, California State Board of Examiners

• QUOTE BY MELICK: "Our aim is to get value received for the State for every dollar spent. Make every dollar count. Stop waste. Pay proper wages and demand results equal to those wages. This is economy." 
• QUOTES ABOUT MELICK: Governor Pardee noted "The State of California lost, when Walter S. Melick died, one of its best and most efficient servants. There never was a time when he did not do his very best and his best was always good. He was always Just, but never unbendingly severe. He was always most industrious, but never impatient. Personally, I feel his loss as I would that of one of my own family. Officially, I know that California never had a more loyal and patriotic citizen and official."
• QUOTE ABOUT MELICK: In their biennial report, the State Commission in Lunacy noted: "He was an indefatigable worker, and a close student of State finances and their application to the relief of distress; and, combined with an unlimited amount of human kindness, he had such a fund of common sense and fairness that his advice was of the greatest value. The State institutions have lost a careful adviser, a generous dispenser, and a warm personal friend."

Source: ACR 1 (Res. Chapt. 2, Statutes of 1905)
Source: First Biennial Report of the State Commission in Lunacy for the Two Years Ending June 30, 1904 by the State of California (1904)