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William J. Duffy

American politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ15992925 ↗
Source-derived summary

William J. Duffy (October 29, 1916 – February 25, 2013) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge. He served 24 years as a Wisconsin circuit court judge in Brown County (1968–1992), and was chief judge of Wisconsin's 8th judicial district from 1982 to 1988. Earlier in his career, he served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly (1949), representing Brown County as a Democrat.

Biography

Born in North Branch, Minnesota, Duffy grew up in Hollandtown, Wisconsin, and graduated from Kaukauna High School. He graduated from St. Norbert College and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1941. Later that year, he joined the United States Army Air Forces for service in World War II. He served throughout the war in the Pacific theater, rising to the rank of Captain.

After the war, he practiced law in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in a partnership with attorney Jerry Clifford. In 1948 he defeated incumbent Republican Assemblyman Harvey Larsen to serve in the Wisconsin State Assembly for the 1949-1950 session. Larsen came back and defeated Duffy in 1950, ending his brief career in the Assembly.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William J. Duffy” is american politician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Duffy and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1916, 2013, 1968, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1916-10-29. For this dossier, William, Duffy and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15992925. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916, 2013, 1968 and 1992.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William J. Duffy”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William J. Duffy primary sources, William J. Duffy archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William J. Duffy”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William J. Duffy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.