Bill Text: DE SB349 | 2025-2026 | 153rd General Assembly | Draft

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Bill Title: An Act To Name The Millsboro Bypass The "senator Richard S. Cordrey Bypass."

Sponsorship: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Enrolled) 2026-06-30 - Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT [SB349 Detail]

Download: Delaware-2025-SB349-Draft.html

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SPONSOR:

Sen. Pettyjohn & Sen. Sokola & Rep. Minor-Brown & Rep. Jones Giltner

DELAWARE STATE SENATE

153rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SENATE BILL NO. 349

AN ACT TO NAME THE MILLSBORO BYPASS THE "SENATOR RICHARD S. CORDREY BYPASS."

WHEREAS, the Honorable Richard S. Cordrey of Millsboro, Sussex County, served a long and honorable life in service to his state and his nation, as a member of the U.S. Army as a young man, as a member of the Delaware General Assembly from 1970 to 1996, and as Delaware Secretary of Finance from 2005 to 2009 during the administration of Governor Ruth Ann Minner; and

WHEREAS, as a member of the Delaware State Senate from 1972 until his retirement from the Senate in 1996, Senator Cordrey served nearly 20 years, from January 1977 to November 1996, as Senate President Pro Tempore, being, at the time of his retirement, the longest-serving state senate president pro tempore in the nation; and

WHEREAS, Senator Cordrey was born in Millsboro on September 8, 1933, the younger of the two sons of John A. and Rachel Smith Cordrey; and

WHEREAS, Richard and his older brother, John S. “Jack” Cordrey grew up in Millsboro and attended local schools, working with their father in the family business, Cordrey Feed Company, which had a large feed house near the center of town; and

WHEREAS, Richard graduated from Millsboro High School as a member of the class of 1951, and went on to Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, where he was blessed to meet a lovely young woman from Bridgeton, New Jersey named Mary Jane Bowen; and

WHEREAS, Richard and Mary Jane fell in love and married in 1953, remaining a wonderful team for the rest of their lives; and

WHEREAS, after college, Richard joined the U.S. Army and served at Fort Gordon, Georgia, where Mary Jane joined him; and

WHEREAS, Richard and Mary Jane went to church every Sunday at the base chapel, which led to one of Richard’s favorite stories about the Sunday they were late getting to church and the only unoccupied seats left were in the special pew set aside for the use of a frequent visitor of the base, then U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former five-star general and ardent golfer who loved coming to Fort Gordon because of its proximity to Augusta National Golf Course; and

WHEREAS, President Eisenhower welcomed the young, enlisted man and his bride and invited them to join him in his pew and after the service he had a friendly conversation with them about where they were from, their hopes for the future and so on; and

WHEREAS, upon Richard’s return to civilian life, he and Mary Jane settled into his hometown of Millsboro, where Richard started the business that dominated his working life for the rest of his days, RSC Farms, with an office in a small building behind the family feed house; and

WHEREAS, in the following years their marriage was blessed by the birth of two sons, Richard Joseph and Stephen Bowen Cordrey; and

WHEREAS, when the boys were older, Mary Jane took a job with the Millsboro School System, where she was employed for 21 years; and

WHEREAS, Richard was very active in the community and in such organizations as St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, where he and his brother, Jack, both sang in the Choir, and in the Millsboro Lion’s Club; and

WHEREAS, Richard served as a member of the Millsboro Town Council from 1965 to 1973; and

WHEREAS, in 1970, Richard ran as the Democratic candidate for state representative in the 41 ^st District in southeastern Sussex County which then included the towns of Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, Selbyville, Frankford, Dagsboro, Millsboro and west to Gumboro; winning the election and serving in the House of Representatives for two years; and

WHEREAS, in 1972, he challenged the incumbent state senator for the area, Sen. Thomas Hickman of Bayard, and won by some 60 votes; and

WHEREAS, his years in the Senate began with a shift to a Democratic majority after many years of Republican control; and

WHEREAS, Richard served as Senate Majority Leader from 1974 to 1976, and as President Pro Tempore of the Senate from 1977 to 1996; and

WHEREAS, as a member of the Senate, he served as chair of the Senate Banking and Ethics Committees and as co-chair of the Legislative Council, among other committees and assignments; and

WHEREAS, throughout his years in the Delaware General Assembly, Senator Cordrey was one of the few active farmers among the membership and was a strong and eloquent voice on behalf of Delaware’s farmers and our state’s tradition of family farming; and

WHEREAS, among the many accomplishments for which Senator Cordrey is remembered are his important contributions to Delaware’s government’s fiscal stability and financial management, in the form of two amendments to the Delaware State Constitution, a process completed in 1980, establishing a spending cap of 98 percent of anticipated general fund revenues and the establishment of a budget reserve account, known as a “Rainy Day Fund,” which could only be used for unanticipated deficits and other unexpected emergencies; and

WHEREAS, for posterity it should be noted that Senator Cordrey was ably assisted in conceiving of these measures by his fellow “Millsboro-ite,” longtime friend and mentor, former U.S. Senator John J. Williams (1904-1988), who retired from a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Senate the same month Senator Cordrey began his duties as a Delaware State Senator, and that, as has so often been the case in Delaware history, Senator Cordrey, a lifelong Democrat, and Senator Williams, a lifelong Republican, put aside party differences in the interests of the state they both loved so well; and

WHEREAS, small town friendships were often more important than politics in the southern Delaware of those times and Richard and his old friend, Senator Williams, a prominent Republican nationally, were among a small group of friends who gathered most weekday mornings for breakfast at Millsboro’s venerable Sam’s Restaurant; and

WHEREAS, another member of their group was Preston C. Townsend, son of onetime Delaware Governor and U.S. Senator John G. Townsend, Jr., and CEO of one of Millsboro’s largest businesses, Townsend Poultry Company; and

WHEREAS, one of their important topics of conversation at those breakfasts was state finances, about which Senator Williams was especially knowledgeable; and

WHEREAS, this was especially true after the near collapse of the Farmer’s Bank of the State of Delaware in the mid-1970s, at which time, the state was the majority stockholder, and most state finances were deposited in the bank; and

WHEREAS, after the debacle, there was much discussion all over the state about ways to restructure the state finances: the results included establishing Delaware’s Rainy Day Fund and a constitutional provision requiring the state to budget only up to 98 percent of anticipated revenues; and

WHEREAS, most of these important reforms were contained in the landmark Financial Center Development Act, the basics of which had been discussed at the breakfast sessions at Sam’s Restaurant among Senators Cordrey, Williams, Mr. Townsend, and others; and

WHEREAS, in the early 1980’s, Senator Cordrey worked closely with Governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV, even though, again, they were from opposite political parties, to bring about enactment of the state’s landmark “Financial Center Development Act,” which has served to make Delaware a national banking center and has brought thousands of high quality jobs to the state; and

WHEREAS, on the day the legislation was to be finalized, Governor du Pont flew down to Richard and Mary Jane’s home in Millsboro in the Delaware National Guard helicopter, stopping along the way to pick up
‎ Richard’s dear friend and colleague, Senator Thurman Adams, Jr., at his feed mill in Bridgeville, and landing in the grassy field behind Cordrey’s home; and

WHEREAS, some years after his retirement from the Senate in 1996, he was named Delaware’s Secretary of Finance by then-Governor Ruth Ann Minner, in which position he served the state ably and well; and

WHEREAS, it thus came as a fitting tribute to his years of service when, in 2012, then-Governor Jack Markell and then Secretary of Agriculture Ed Kee announced the naming of the state’s Department of Agriculture Headquarters in his honor, and “If I had any choice of any building to have my name put upon, it would be this one right here,” adding, “I have had the two best jobs anyone has ever had in the world – being a legislator and being a farmer.”; and

WHEREAS, Richard’s beloved Mary Jane preceded her husband in death, passing away on January 5, 2016; and

WHEREAS, it is perhaps appropriate, given the subject of this legislation, that we end our account of the remarkable life of this fine Sussex County gentleman by recounting one of his favorite stories of his years in the legislature: Richard used to say that one of his main objectives in deciding to run for the Delaware House of Representatives in 1970 was to speed up the dualization of U.S. 113 between Selbyville and the Maryland state line and Dover, which had then been in progress for several years and was experiencing delays; and

WHEREAS, as luck would have it, the first day that the newly dualized span of highway was open to all motorists all the way from Selbyville to Dover was also Richard's last day as a member of the Delaware State Senate after 26 years of exemplary service; and

WHEREAS, in view of the close friendship and working relationship of many years standing between Senators John J. Williams and Richard S. Cordrey, it seems singularly appropriate that the new Millsboro bypass, which connects U.S. 113 to the portion of the highway, Delaware Route 24, now known as the John J. Williams Highway should be named for Senator Cordrey, thus uniting these old friends in perpetuity.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

Section 1. The portion of Route 24 known as the Millsboro Bypass is hereby designated and shall be known as the “Senator Richard S. Cordrey Bypass.”

Section 2. The Department of Transportation shall erect suitable signs along the bypass to indicate its name.

SYNOPSIS

This Act names the Millsboro Bypass the “Senator Richard S. Cordrey Bypass” to honor Senator Cordrey’s decades of public service and lasting contributions to Delaware’s fiscal and economic stability.

Author: Senator Pettyjohn