Casper R. Taylor Jr., a businessman and one of the longest-serving member of the House of Delegates who rose to become speaker died in his sleep Monday morning at the age of 88. A cause of death was not given.
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With a cause of death not immediately available, Taylor was believed to have been suffering from old-age related sicknesses over the past few years.
Born in Frostburg in 1934 to Casper R. Taylor Sr. and Zelma (McDermott) Taylor, Taylor Jr. graduated from LaSalle High School, Cumberland, in 1952.
After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1956, where he was a member of the Air Force ROTC, Taylor started out his career as a restaurant owner, and was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1974.
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Taylor Jr. used his position to boost Western Maryland, a part of the state that has more affinity with neighboring communities in West Virginia and Pennsylvania than with the rest of the state and was often overlooked by most of the state’s power elites, who were concentrated in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., regions.
Among his legacies was bringing the Rocky Gap resort and golf course to a state park along Interstate 68 in Allegany County.
However, he was ousted by angry voters in 2002 after shepherding gun control legislation through the General Assembly. Another reason for his defeat was the redrawn legislative district lines that added four heavily Republican precincts in Washington County to his traditionally Democratic district based around Cumberland.
While a full list of survivors was not immediately available Monday evening, Taylor, in addition to his son Brendan, is survived by another son, Dane Taylor, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
His wife of 64 years, Polly Taylor, was killed in a car crash in 2021.
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