Conservative assemblyman George H. Klicka, who served in the Legislature from 1966 through 1982, was born in Milwaukee on December 23, 1934. After graduating from Washington High School, he attended Marquette University from 1955 to 1956. During the Berlin crisis in 1960 he served as a medic with the Wisconsin National Guard.
Klicka was employed as a salesman of life insurance, telephone intercom systems, and printing ink. Later he became an art and antiques dealer and a title insurance agent. His local activities included the Cancer Crusade, the American Czech Civic Council, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Police Reserve, the American Legion, Eagles, and Sertoma.
Klicka became involved in conservative Republican politics in the early 1960s and was active in the Goldwater-Miller campaign in 1964. In 1966 he was elected to the Assembly from Wauwatosa, a conservative Milwaukee suburb, and he continued to serve without interruption until 1982. As a legislator Klicka was best known for his membership in the John Birch Society and for his espousal of Birch-supported legislation. At the time, he was one of two avowed members of the organization in the Legislature. Other conservative organizations to which Klicka belonged included the Liberty Lobby and the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade. Issues with which he was particularly identified include abortion, capital punishment, gun control, subversives at the University of Wisconsin, controls on welfare recipients, mandatory prison sentencing for felonies, tax reduction, and limitation of government. Klicka was defeated in an attempt at reelection in 1982 by Peggy Rosenzweig.
