July 2, 1975 - July 31, 1983
On July 2, 1975, Governor Hugh L. Carey appointed William G. Connelie to become the eighth Superintendent of the State Police.
Born Nov. 23, 1920, in New York City, Superintendent Connelie was a career member of the New York City Police Department, where he rose through the ranks from patrolman (1946) to assistant chief inspector, along the way receiving 13 citations for bravery and meritorious service during a 30-year career. A 1973 cum laude graduate of the John Jay School of Criminal Justice, where he received a B.S. in political science, he also served a year in the U.S. Army and 22 years in the Army Air Corps as a 1st lieutenant.
As the state began to recover from the economic difficulties caused by the energy crisis in the first half of the 1970s, the state police was able to resume the expansion program it had begun under Supt. Cornelius. In 1977, the first recruit class in three years was authorized, and 229 new troopers were hired. A program of laboratory expansion was undertaken to provide better service to state police members and local law enforcement agencies dependent on the Crime Laboratory for evidence analysis. Under this effort, the Mid-Hudson Regional Crime Laboratory opened in Newburgh in 1978. The agency also began establishing a series of satellite offices around the state in which troopers could be stationed close to their posts. Begun in 1977 with 34 such offices, the satellite program gradually increased to 60 by the end of the decade.
Supt. Connelie resigned to enter retirement July 31, 1983.
Superintendent Connelie passed away on October 14, 2019, at the age of 98.