The most powerful man in Arizona you may not have heard of

Perspectives on Arizona History, Part 2 of 4: Dick Mallery

You have probably heard the references: Charter government, the Phoenix 40, greater Phoenix leadership. In short, the men (and they were originally all men — and white men at that) who ran Arizona.

This week’s guest was INSIDE the room when the Phoenix 40 was conceived. Some reports claim it was his idea. This is especially interesting because the next-youngest man in the room was likely 30 years his senior.

Downtown Phoenix used to be described as a wasteland where they rolled up the sidewalks at 5 p.m. and everyone drove home. Art venues (notably the Herberger), sports venues, tGen, ASU downtown and, voila!, a transformed downtown.  Look at the history of how most of these came to be, and you will see Dick Mallery’s fingerprints everywhere.

You may not recognize Dick’s name, but you can be certain every governor of Arizona in the last 40 years (Evan Mecham excepted) had Dick’s number on speed dial.

Part two of our Arizona History series picks up roughly at the end of World War II with Dick Mallery.