Walter Edge Archives - New Jersey Globe

Phil Murphy’s Curse of the Bambino

October 11, 2021 12:50 pmOctober 20, 2021 6:32 pm

Baseball loyalties come up in Jack Ciattarelli’s stump speech as the Republican gubernatorial nominee likes to remind voters that while he’s a hardcore New York Yankees fan while Gov. Phil Murphy roots for the Boston Red Sox. Murphy hasn’t shied...

Labor Leader: Joel Jacobson picked a public fight with Frank Sinatra

September 6, 2021 12:10 amSeptember 4, 2021 3:48 pm

One of the great New Jersey fights of the 1970s was between labor leader Joel R. Jacobson (1918-1989) and Frank Sinatra. Sinatra and Dean Martin were playing blackjack before their performance at the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City in...

Labor Leader: Lewis Bryant was the first N.J. Commissioner of Labor

September 6, 2021 12:09 amSeptember 5, 2021 6:03 pm

Lewis T. Bryant was New Jersey’s first Commissioner of Labor. After the New Jersey Legislature created the Department of Labor in 1904 – the predecessor position was Inspector of Factories and Workshops — Gov. Franklin Murphy nominated Bryant to fill...

Labor Leader: ex-Yankees pitcher later served as N.J. Commissioner of Labor

September 6, 2021 12:07 amSeptember 6, 2021 12:14 am

Before Bill Bradley, there was Harry C. Harper. Known as “Hackensack Harry,” Harper spent ten seasons as a major league baseball pitcher. The big left-hander was the starting pitcher for the New York Yankees game six of the 1921 World...

Labor Leader: Vincent J. Murphy was NJ AFL-CIO president, two-term Mayor of Newark

September 6, 2021 12:01 amSeptember 4, 2021 3:46 pm

One of the most influential labor leaders in New Jersey history was Vincent J. Murphy (1893-1976), who spent nine years as the president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO after two terms as the Mayor of Newark. He was the Democratic...

Veteran: George Washington Goethals

May 31, 2021 12:01 amMay 30, 2021 10:46 pm

One New Jersey war veteran whose legacy remains intact after more than a century was Major Genera George Washington Goethals, the namesake of the Goethals Bridge. Goethals was an 1880 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and...

Trailblazer: Thelma Parkinson Sharp

February 9, 2021 12:16 amFebruary 9, 2021 10:58 am

Thelma Parkinson Sharp (1898-1983) was the first woman to run for statewide office in New Jersey and the first woman to serve in the governor’s cabinet. At age 32, she is also the youngest person to ever win a statewide...