Ken Meiser, a former deputy director of the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate and the attorney who filed the original affordable housing lawsuit that became the New Jersey Supreme Court’s landmark Mount Laurel decision, died on October 21. He was 78.
Donald J. Cox, a former Ewing councilman who was the Republican nominee for State Senate in the 15th district in 2011 and 2013, died on October 22. He was 90. A U.S. Army veteran, Cox won 34% against State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence) in 2011 and 37% in a 2013 rematch.
William Lewis, a former Courier-Post and Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, died on October 22. He was 77. Lewis was a U.S. Marine veteran and spent nineteen years as an adjunct professor at Camden County College.
Donald Sanderson, Sr., a former Woodbury mayor and councilman, died on October 19. He was 94. A U.S. Army veteran, Sanderson was first elected to the city council in 1972 and spent thirteen years as council president. He was mayor for eight years.
Anne Whitehead, the first and only woman to serve as mayor of Essex Fells, died on October 12. She was 93. Whitehead was a councilwoman from 1978 to 1997 and mayor from 1998 to 2000. She served on the school board in the 1960s and 1970s and was a 17-year member of the Planning Board.
Michael Pitch, a former Pine Beach Democratic municipal chairman and the Superintendent of Schools in South Bound Brook, Seaside Park, and Riverdale, died on October 22. He was 91. Pitch was a U.S. Army and Korean War veteran.
Teofilo Montañez, a former chief judge of the Vineland Municipal Court who spent 24 years as a Camden Municipal Court Judge, died on October 19. He was 67.
Michael Diamond, a former Winslow Municipal Court Judge, died on October 15. He was 69.
Frank Monzo, Jr., a former Haddon Township Democratic municipal chairman who began a half-century political career as a Philadelphia Democratic committeeman and ward chairman in the 1970s and 1980s, died on October 21. He was 73.
William Mockridge, a former Ocean Grove fire commissioner and World War II veteran, died on October 25. He was 97.
Paul Williams, a former Linden Democratic county committeeman and Board of Health member, died on October 22. He was 92. Williams was a U.S. Air Force veteran and later served on the Loch Arbour Planning Board.
Isabel Johannessen, a former Woodbury Democratic county committeewoman, died on October 13. She was 83.
George Wickard, a former president of the Hunterdon County Planning Board and a U.S. Army veteran during the Korean War, died on August 6. He was 91.
Florence Smith, whose father, Albert Kirms, served as mayor of Bradley Beach in the 1940s, died on October 20. She was 85.