Morris J. Dimmick: A Man Ahead of His Time

Hellertown's longest-serving and arguably most progressive leader, Morris Jacob Dimmick was born on March 10, 1888, in Lower Saucon Township, to Jacob and Elmira Dimmick. The area in which he was born was later annexed by Hellertown, in 1919. His father was a farmer who eventually moved his wife and six sons to a farm on Reservoir Road. The boys attended the Wassergass one-room schoolhouse, which still stands and is now a private residence.

Upon completion of eighth grade--the highest grade offered at the one-room schoolhouse--Morris Dimmick worked his way through Bethlehem Business School. This was a school in South Bethlehem that educated many of the Lehigh Valley's business leaders. Dimmick grew to be a distinguished looking man, standing 5'11" with brown hair and light blue intelligent eyes that never missed a detail.

Dimmick began his long career at Guerber Engineering Company as a stenographer in 1904. He lived with his brother Asher on Old Philadelphia Pike as a boarder. In 1908, Dimmick married Carrie Louise Boehm (1887-1977), the daughter of Lower Saucon constable Henry Boehm and Saretta Ehrig. They would have four children: Kenneth, Gordon, Ray and Marcella. The Dimmicks raised their children in their family home at 1528 Main Street, Hellertown.

As soon as Dimmick was of age to vote he became involved in politics. As a young man he was elected to the Democratic County Committee and retained that position for many years. Of the many community offices he held, he is most remembered for serving as Chief Burgess of Hellertown for five terms (1925-1945). At the time, the role of chief burgess was roughly equivalent to that of a mayor today.

The following is a list of Dimmick's remarkable achievements as Chief Burgess of Hellertown. Keep in mind that during his years of service to the borough, the New York stock market crashed, the national economy collapsed and the U.S. was plunged into the Great Depression (1929-1939).

• The water system was completely rebuilt and the water system for the 1st and 2nd wards was purchased from the city of Bethlehem.
• He organized the borough's finances, creating the first budget system and reducing taxes.
• He adopted a municipal garbage collection system.
• All streets were improved.
• Parks, playgrounds, athletic fields, a picnic pavilion, a concert lawn, a memorial garden and the Hellertown swimming pool were constructed in the mid-late 1930s.
• The Hellertown Planning Commission, the Hellertown Borough (Water) Authority and the Park and Shade Tree Commission were created.

As a result of Dimmick's considerable organizational abilities, Hellertown was the first community in the state to receive Works Project Administration funds, and the Federal Administration went on to use Hellertown as a model for the efficient use of funding.

Dimmick's interests in water quality, parks and open space planning, and town planning were far ahead of his time. Consequently, other communities sought his advice regularly. In 1925, he negotiated the purchase of 15 acres of land from Bethlehem Steel for one dollar. That parcel, , was renamed by Borough Council in Dimmick's honor in 1966.

Dimmick's work for Hellertown would have been a full-time job for just about anyone else, but as an apparently masterful multi-tasker, he also continued to work diligently in the private sector while in service to the borough. Guerber, which had become Bethlehem Fabricators and was located at Eighth Avenue and Lehigh Street in the city, promoted Dimmick to Vice-President in the 1930s. He retired from that position in 1960.

A 1926 newspaper story perhaps best captured the essence of Morris Dimmick.

In May of 1926, he was fed up with reckless speeding drivers that used Main Street in Hellertown as a racetrack. The road's posted speed limit at the time was 15 miles per hour, but daredevil motorists were attempting to race trolley cars and using the entire street to pass the cars filled with passengers.

Concerned about public safety, Dimmick called for an ordinance to stop the speeding. He also asked, while council was at it, that they write ordinances to shut down gambling joints, liquor stills and bawdy houses in Hellertown. He was a man on a mission, and fortunately for us, he succeeded.

When Morris Dimmick died on May 29, 1972, at the age of 84, he was buried in . In that same year, the community he had devoted his life to making a better place celebrated the 100th anniversary of its incorporation as a borough.