Daniel Parisi, elected Gloucester freeholder at 23, dies at 77

Daniel Parisi, who was 23 when he unseated an incumbent in a 1965 race for Gloucester County Freeholder, died on July 10.  He was 77.

Parisi defeated Republican incumbent Joseph Grochowski by 131 votes, 52%-48%.

In those days, Gloucester County freeholders were elected in districts.  Parisi challenged Grochowski in a district that included Newfield and Franklin.  Grochowski had won a two-year unexpired term in 1963,

At the end of his first year as freeholder, he resigned to become the Franklin Chief of Police.

Five years later, he mounted a successful fight to abolish the township police department.

Parisi spent fifteen years as police chief before retiring to run the Pennsauken-based D. Parisi and Son paper yard and River Road Recycling.