In Memoriam

Sarah Jane Marchetti, who worked in the office of Gov. Richard J. Hughes in the 1960s, died on February 8.  She was 80.

Frank Faralli, Jr.. a registered nurse who ran as an independent candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 2nd district in 2012, died on February 10.  He was 70.  Faralli ran under a Conservative slogan and received 892 votes (0.3%)  in his sixth-place finish against Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-Ventnor).

Raymond Hayser, a former Superior Court Judge, died on February 9.  He was 77.  Hayser served as acting Jersey City Corporation Counsel, as Toms River law director, and as municipal attorney in Belmar, Howell, Sayreville, Colts Neck, and Englishtown before Gov. Jim Florio nominated him to the bench in 1993.

George Trapp, a former reporter and editor for The Home News and later an insurance and banking executive who served in the Regan Administration, died on February 9.  He was 75.

Frank DeFeo, a former Egg Harbor Township Committeeman and deputy mayor, died on February 15.  He was 85.  A U.S. Army veteran,  DeFeo was a member of the IAFF Local 198 and the FMBA Local 500.

Donald “Pop” Ley, Sr., a former Woodbury Heights mayor and councilman, died on February 16.  He was 91.   Ley was a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Korean War.

Don Taylor, a former mayor of Fairfield Township in Cumberland County, died on February 12.  He was 74.

Madeline Gavin, a former Allentown council president and the East Amwell Superintendent of Schools, died on February 7.  She was 88.

John Morino, a former assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services and a 30-year state government employee, died on February 18.  He was 77.  Morino served on the Ewing Township Board of Education for several terms and was a member of the Rent Control Board. 

Travis Ogden Thompson, a prominent Hawaii politician who was born and raised in Woodbury, died on February 14.  He was 87.  Thompson, a retired Boeing executive whose family settled in South Jersey in 1682, became involved in politics as the Maui City Finance Director after Linda Lingle was elected mayor in 1990.  He later became the Republican National Committeeman from Hawaii and ran Lingle’s transition team after she was elected governor in 2002.  He later served on the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and the Hawaii Housing and Community Development Corporation.

Carol Newton, who served as a Paterson Municipal Court Judge under two mayors, Frank X. Graves and Bill Pascrell, has died.  She was 81.

Charles Edson, a former assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation, died on February 16.  He was 86 and worked for the NJDOT for 40 years.

Joseph Ackourney, Jr., who led the government affairs team at Ciba-Geigy from 1978 to 2003, died on February 13.  He was 87.  Ackourney later ran his own independent lobbying firm.

Eva Almeida, the mother of the late Superior Court Judge John Almeida, died on February 9.  He was 95.

Eleanor Bez, who served as a Weehawken Housing Authority Commissioner from 1992 to 2021, died on February 7.  She was 90.

Edward Collins, whose late father, the legendary Dennis P. Collins, served as mayor of Bayonne, has died.  He was 75.  He worked for the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.

Claudia Buderman, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the Merchantville Borough Council in 1984, died on February 7.  She was 70.

Kenneth Schreihofer, a former Union Township Zoning Board chairman and Republican leader, died on January 30.  He was 82.