Robert Hughey, who served in Gov. Thomas Kean’s cabinet as Commissioner of Environmental Protection from 1982 to 1985, died on April 13 after a long illness. He was 80. He served as New Jersey’s “Jobs Czar” under Gov. Jim Florio and as vice president of the New Jersey Institute for Technology. He managed State Sen. Bill Gormley’s campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1989.
Richard Squires, who served as Atlantic County Executive for sixteen years, died on April 2. He was 91. A U.S. Navy veteran during the Korean War, Squires was elected Northfield Tax Collector and Atlantic County freeholder in 1975.
Dorothy Vauss, the mother of Irvington Mayor Tony Vauss, died early this morning. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Robert W. Lee, Sr., a former acting commissioner of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission the first Black candidate for Union County sheriff when Republicans nominated him in 1971, died on March 22. He was 90. A former Scotch Plains police officer and investigator for the Hudson County Prosecutor’s office, later served as deputy director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs before becoming president of the U.S. Boxing Association. In his race for sheriff, Democratic incumbent Ralph Oriscello was re-elected by over 32,000 votes. He ran for Union County Freeholder in 1973, and was an alternate delegate to the 1976 Republican National Convention pledged to President Gerald Ford.
Alfred J. D’Auria, a former Jersey City Council candidate and the municipal court judge in Avon by the Sea for more than three decades before retiring in 2015, died on April 11. He was 82. A former Assistant Hudson County prosecutor and New Jersey National Guard member, he was the son of the late Judge Alfred P. D’Auria, who served on the Workers’ Compensation Court in the 1960s and 1970s. When he ran for city councilman, he was the lone member of Mayor Paul Jordan’s slate to lose; Thomas Maresca, an ally of mayoral candidate Buddy Gangemi, won The Heights ward seat by a 54%-35% victory over D’Auria in a four-candidate race.
Frederick A. Busch, Jr., a former Clementon mayor who challenged Jim Florio twice in South Jersey congressional races in the 1980s, died on April 14. He was 92. A U.S. Air Force veteran during the Korean War, Busch was the Republican nominee for State Assembly in the 4th district in 1979 – he lost to Democrats Daniel Dalton and Dennis Riley by about 8,000 votes. Against Florio, who had been elected to Congress in 1974 and came within 1,797 votes of becoming Governor in 1981, Busch won 28% in 1984 and 24% in 1986.
Jean Carol Snider, who served on the Essex County Republican Committee for 40 years and worked as an aide to a Democratic assemblyman, Buddy Fortunato (D-Glen Ridge), died on April 17. She was 81. Her mother was May E. Maher, who served as Essex County Democratic vice chair and briefly, after the resignation of Harry Lerner, as the Essex County Democratic chair during the hugely competitive 1978 county executive primary.
Mimi Sarthou, a veteran of Democratic politics in Bergen County for nearly six decades, died on March 20. She was 103. Sarthou had been named to the Bergen County Board of Elections by Gov. Richard J. Hughes in 1967, and later served as Superintendent of Elections or Deputy Superintendent, depending on which party was in power, under Governors William Cahill, Brendan Byrne, and Thomas Kean.
Michael Cioffi, the son of former Long Branch Mayor Skip Cioffi and a former New York City firefighter, died on March 23 of an illness connected to his service as a first responder at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He was 61.
John Lane, a former municipal prosecutor in more than a dozen Monmouth County municipalities and the husband of longtime Monmouth GOP leader Mary Fran Lane, died on April 12 after a brief illness. He was 64. A former Wall school board member, he also served as the Union Beach municipal attorney and a special counsel in Monmouth County.
Kenneth Rieth, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General who served as deputy commissioner and deputy adjutant general in Gov. Tom Kean’s administration, died on April 9. He was 93. His son, retired Army Major General Glenn Rieth, served as Adjutant General under Governors Jon Corzine and Chris Christie.
Roderick Anderson, the first Democratic mayor of Berkeley Heights, died on April 30. He was 90.
John Tort, a six-term Hanover township committeeman and former deputy mayor, died on March 18. He was 77. Tort was a U.S. Air Force Reserve veteran.
William Brooks, a former mayor of Pittsgrove who served ten years on the township committee, died on April 28. He was 77.
Thomas Lehew, a former mayor and school board member in Salem, died on March 29 of complications related to multiple sclerosis. He was 73.
Philip Toronto, a former Lodi mayor and Vietnam War veteran, died on April 13. He was 78.
Marie Strumolo-Burke, a former Belleville councilwoman and Democratic municipal chair, died on March 8. She was 82.
Harold Mitchell, a former Plainfield city councilman, died on April 24. He was 85.
Salvatore Mastroberti, who served as a councilman and school board member in Berkeley Township, died on March 31. He was 92. Mastroberti served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.
Neil Hamilton, a former Manasquan council president, died on March 25. He was 79.
Russell Stewart, a Brielle councilman in the 1970s and 1980s, died on March 30. He was 92. Stewart was a U.S. Air Force veteran.
Samuel Hammill, who served as a councilman in Merchantville, died on March 13. He was 86. Hammill was a U.S. Navy veteran.
Frank Wheatley, a former councilman in Wharton, died on March 8. He was 93. Wheatley served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.
Robert Burke, a former Trentonian reporter and social worker for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, died on April 14. He was 71.
Theresa Glab, a former Courier-Post reporter, died on April 5. She was 80.
Harold Fullilove, a Superior Court Judge from 1991 until his retirement in 2015, and after that on recall, died on April 24. He was 89. Fullilove served as an assistant Essex County prosecutor and as an assistant Newark corporation counsel under Mayor Kenneth Gibson. He was a U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam.
Barnett Hoffman, a former Superior Court Judge, died on April 21. He was 83. A retired U.S. Army captain, he served as First Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor before Gov. Brendan Byrne nominated him to the bench in 1981. He spent 21 years as a judge.
Mark Baber, who was nominated as a Superior Court Judge in 1989 and served until 2023 and on recall after that, died on March 30. He was 70.
Keith Bachman, a former Superior Court Judge and New Milford councilman, died on March 14 after a battle with bulbar-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 66.
Andy Kleppe, a former Caldwell municipal prosecutor and zoning board attorney, died on April 20. He was 90.
Robert Baron, a Bergen County attorney who had worked as a reporter at the Associated Press, died on April 7. He was 73.
Barry Winston, a former Fair Lawn Democratic municipal chairman, died on April 15. He was 79.
John LaVecchia, a former Connell Foley partner and the son of Newark Judge John LaVecchia, died on March 6. He was 92.
Richard Malacrea, a former athletic trainer at Princeton University who chaired the Athletic Training Advisory Committee to the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners, died on April 17. He was 92. Malcrea was a U.S. Army veteran.
Catherine Celli, the wife of Matawan Municipal Court Judge Michael Celli and the daughter-in-law of Long Branch Councilwoman Mary Jane Celli, died on May 1. She was 61.
Phyllis Ims, a former Mahwah Sewer Authority commission who was picked by Gov. Brendan Byrne to run a motor vehicle agency there and remained in office for 35 years, died on March 29. She was 82.
Pamela Rafanello, who worked on campaigns for her father, Orange Mayor Carmine Capone, died on April 21 after a battle with multiple myeloma. She was 65.
Lucille Scerbo, the widow of Alphonse Scerbo, a former Boonton mayor, Morris County freeholder, and county clerk, died in March. She was 96. |
Patricia Ann Deiner, a former president of the Middlesex County Democratic Club, died on March 24. She was 88.
Neil Preston Miller, Jr., a former Democratic county committeeman from Newark and the nephew of former West Ward Democratic Chair Jeanette Seabrooks, died on March 8. He was 52.
Joan Petonyak, a former Democratic county committeewoman from Hamilton Township (Mercer County), died on April 27. She was 90.
Diane Tappen-Bolton, a former Middlesex County Young Democrats president, died on May 1. She was 79.
Tony Puleio, who served as a Democratic county committeeman from North Brunswick for three decades, died on April 27. He was 96. Puleio served in the U.S. Army during World War II. His late brother, Vito Puleio, served as North Brunswick Democratic municipal chairman for 46 years.
Morris Thomas, Jr., a former candidate for mayor and councilman in Orange, died on March 28. He was 89. |
Robert Shrekgast, Sr., a former Old Bridge school board member and delegate to the 1976 Democratic National Convention, died on March 10. She was 86.
Robert McSweeney, a former Democratic county committeeman from Woodbridge and member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825, died on April 28. He was 90. McSweeney was a U.S. Coast Guard veteran.
Eugene Zick, a Little Egg Harbor resident who had served as mayor of Russellville, Kentucky, died on April 23. He was 88.