Clifton Merchant Magazine - November 2011

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

F R O M t h e E D I T O R To m H a w r y l k o

. . . s e r a Clifton C pplies

u S g n i l i a m r i A ! e n i l t n o r F e to th

Chris Liszner, Lizz Gagnon and Dona Crum are asking Clifton to join them in supporting the troops.

For the past year, their group— Clifton Cares—have collected hundreds of boxes of items needed by soldiers on the frontline and shipped them to young men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So as the holiday season approaches, they are doing it again.

Clifton Cares is putting on a November push to collect items ranging from homemade cookies to fresh socks. And they are asking the community to make donations from a suggested list of items or offer a financial contribution.

Clifton Cares, which is run on a shoestring—the three are volunteers—began small and personal, reported Lizz Gagnon.

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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CLIFTON Cares In May 2010, Dona Crum shared an email from her son, US Army Major Scott C. Crum. (A story about he and his grandfather follow this column.) He told of how many of his soldier’s were in need of basic items... soaps and sanitizers, lip balm and sunscreen, cheerful notes, fresh cookies and words of encouragement. Soon Lizz, Chris and Dona spread the word and those items and many more were collected. Some cash donations came in too and the trio were able to ship off a couple dozen boxes in July 2010.

Back then, the group used the Gagnon’s Brookwood Ave. home as the staging area. “Bill (Gagnon’s husband) and I began in our rec room, then expanded into the basement where we did all the packing,” recalled Lizz. These days the storage and the packing and shipping are done at the Senior Citizen’s Barn on the city hall campus. Volunteers are always needed.

Appreciative soldiers sent cards and photos back to Clifton City Hall thanking Lizz and her team for their good will, motivating the stateside trio.

Soon they adopted the Clifton Cares moniker, connected with local like-minded groups and began a campaign to do a second shipment. Then another... soon, 875 packages were mailed.

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

Clifton Cares remains grassroots—all volunteer.

The Gagnon home on Brookwood Ave. still serves as ‘headquarters” but there is a collection bin at City Hall. Veteran’s halls across town are also accepting items and coordinating with the trio who manage all the logistics of getting the items air borne. And to make the December holiday delivery, they have set a Nov. 29 deadline for this month’s campaign.

Donations of the following items are needed: Hand sanitizer, mouthwash, deodorant, toothpaste, bodywash, shampoo, shaving cream, baby powder, Gold Bond powder, lip balm, flossing items, disposable razors, white socks, Visine, gum, hard candy, powder drinks, magazines, crossword puzzles and Suduko books. White ankle socks are always needed by female soldiers and black, brown and white high socks by the males.

“Homemade cookies (vacuum sealed) are a hit but any cookies, chocolate, nut bars, Pringles and pepperoni are always enjoyed,” wrote Chris Liszner. “So when you grocery shop, please remember our soldiers and pick up some extra cookies and candy. To brighten their ‘home.’ Santa hats and stockings and any other hanging decorations will certainly be enjoyed.”

Scout troops and school kids can also get involved and are encouraged to make cards or send notes. Holiday wishes can be sent in a card and left at City Hall.

The idea is to share the spirit of the holiday. “Every day our soldiers are away is difficult but celebrating the holidays without their family is a feeling we cannot understand,” Liszner added. “But we all can make it less lonely and bring smiles to their faces, by sending them a little bit of home.”

The trio is quick to share the accolades for those who have made Clifton Cares a reality.

Gagnon noted that Clifton City Hall employees, Verizon Pioneers and the staff of ITT, EK Success and Titanium as well as members of VFW 7165, Athenia Veterans, AARP’s from the Masonic Lodge and St Brendan’s have continually supported this project since its inception.

“Then there are the ladies of the Moose and the kids in the CHS Jr ROTC program and others in the school system,” Gagnon added.

“The support has been tremendous.

The mayor and council, former City Manager Al Greco... so many people...”

Volunteers are always needed to help package the items. To help out, report to the Senior Citizen’s Barn on City Hall Campus Nov. 30 at 5 pm.

But as the campaign begins its next chapter, Gagnon hopes to make it a huge delivery. Thus, she is also encouraging local businesses to collect supplies at their offices or factories and deliver them to City Hall.

Donations would also be appreciated. Checks of $12.95 made payable to the “Clifton Post Office” are requested—that figure pays for a US Postal Priority Flat

Rate box which will be filled with items.

To mail a donation, make checks to “Lizz Gagnon” or “Clifton Post Office” and send c/o Clifton City Hall Tax Assessor’s Office, 900 Clifton Ave., Clifton, NJ 07013.

If you have any questions, want to volunteer or make a donation, email Lizz at gags2120@aol.com or call her at 973-818-8141.

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Once again we are proud to help spread the word and remind residents to stand along Main Avenue on Nov. 6 near Main Memorial Park to Salute our Veterans.

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

TWO GENERATIONS OF BRONZE STARS Military Service is a Tradition for this Family

By Robert Wahlers

T

including my grandhe Bronze father and uncles. It Star that seemed like a good Scott C. stepping stone, so Crum, a 1989 graduafter I graduated, I ate of Clifton High enlisted in the Air School, earned for Force in 1995.” his service in Crum completed Afghanistan will forhis basic training a ever hold a special few months later as a meaning. His grandsenior airman, an Air father, Donald F. Force rank that’s just Cudworth, was also below staff sergeant. awarded the Bronze He would eventually Star for service to his attend Officer’s country during Training School and World War II. Donald F. Cudworth and his grandson, Scott C. Crum graduated in 2000 as “It’s wonderful to a second lieutenant. have this in common Today, he holds the rank of major. with my grandfather,” Crum said. “My experiences in “It was important for me to work my way up like the military have been vastly different from his, howthat,” he said. “Because by the time you take on a ever. I was never under fire and I know my grandfather leadership role as an officer, you have a great insight was, although he doesn’t talk about it. .He also had this into what’s it’s like to be an enlisted man. I think it knack for meeting people, like the time he received a makes you a much better officer.” special blessing from the Pope while he was in Rome.

Since that time, Crum’s assignments have taken him Me? I just met a couple of senators.” to Air Force bases in Great Falls, Montana; After graduating from Clifton High, Crum attended Vandenberg, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico, the University of South Carolina to pursue a degree in Biloxi, Mississippi; Bolling, Washington DC; and criminal justice. To gain field experience, he enrolled Andrews in Maryland. in the school’s licensed constable program, which was In June 2010, he was deployed to Kabul, offered to junior and senior students who were interAfghanistan, assigned as a sexual assault response ested in providing security on campus. coordinator (SARC) program manager. Toward the “Through that program, I met guys who had served end of his six months of service there, he was recogin the Air Force, like MPs, and they spoke very highly nized with the Bronze Star for his “leadership, comabout how I could advance my career through the milmitment and exemplary performance of duty.” itary. I knew a lot of my family members had served, November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th

Dona Crum and her daughter Katherine, Donald and Catherine Cudworth Scott Crum Jr. with his wife Teena and their daughter Taylor, Scott’s dad and Dona’s late husband Scott Sr., and Valerie and John Cudworth in 1995.

“Most people won’t report a sexual assault because they’re scared,” he said. “I was tasked with improving communications for investigations. Before I arrived, there was no single valve for information to flow up through channels.”

Creating this central portal for information facilitated the military’s primary goal of helping victims and ensuring that they received the treatment, care and counseling that they needed.

“Being in Afghanistan was a unique experience,” Crum said. “I was stationed in the middle of Kabul near the U.S. Embassy. It’s always a paradox trying to describe what it was like living there. On the one hand, it’s an exciting and beautiful land, but it’s easy to look at it another way and see it as dirty and disappointing.”

After completing his assignment overseas, Crum returned home last November. He currently lives at the Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas with his wife Teena and their four children, three daughters and a son, who range in age from 6 to 18.

Crum said he enjoys coming back to Clifton whenever his schedule permits.

“A lot has changed about Clifton since I lived here,” he said. “It seems like every time I come back, there are more people living here. One thing that hasn’t changed is the food. It’s still great! I know if I crave a good slice of Sicilian pie, I can get what I want at places like Bruno’s. When I’m away, I can still get a good taste of Clifton because my Mom likes to send 10

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

me bagels.”

In terms of commemorating Veteran’s Day, Crum said he hopes everyone takes a few moments to reflect on the challenges military personnel face as they transition back to civilian life.

“It’s never easy. Any support and understanding given to a returning veteran can make a big difference in their lives.”

Crum’s grandfather, Donald F. Cudworth, feels the same way.

“I think a lot about the vets coming home and worry about them,” he said. “We learned a lot from the Vietnam War experience. It was a shame how horribly those guys were treated when they came home.”

Cudworth said he hopes those who come back from Afghanistan and Iraq are taken care of, that they have a place to live and a job so they can take care of themselves and their families.

“I remember when I came back I had a terrible time trying to find a home for myself, my wife Catherine and our baby. The story about my struggle turned up in a local newspaper and that led to a lot of support and giving from people in the community. I think this proved that it’s not that people don’t care. It’s just that you tend to not think about what others are going through because you’re so wrapped up in your own struggles.”

Born and raised in Glen Ridge, Cudworth received his military training as a member of the 44th Division

of the National Guard, which was composed of units from New Jersey and New York, and mobilized by the federal government in 1940.

“We were stationed at Fort Dix and at the time, there was only one building there, which was constructed by the CCC,” Cudworth recalled.

In September, 1941, the division travelled south to participate in the Carolina Maneuvers, massive exercises in mock warfare that involved about 500,000 troops, or nearly one-third of the U. S. Army.

“We were headed back to Dix in our convoy of trucks. That’s when we heard the news about Pearl Harbor being bombed. Most of us had no idea what or where Pearl Harbor was.”

With the country now at war, a regimental combat team, the 113th Infantry, was formed out of New Jersey National Guard troops from Essex, Hudson, Bergen and Passaic counties. Cudworth moved with that outfit to form a defense of the East Coast. His assignment: guard duty at Mitchel Field in Long Island.

By 1943, Cudworth had been attached to the143rd Infantry, 36th Division. The 36th was known as the Texas Division because of its Lone Star origins. It’s also affectionately known as the T-Patchers because of their T insignia. Cudworth landed in Algeria, North Africa that spring.

“I had just walked off the gangplank and was standing around with my duffel bags when a guy rides by in a jeep,” he recalled. “I said to my buddies, hey, that looks like my brother Frank. I yelled out to him and sure enough it was.”

It was the first of several fortuitous meetings

Cudworth would have during the war. By the fall of that year, the 143rd had landed in “sunny Italy,” the beginning of a long slog northward up the Italian “boot” against fierce German resistance, including battles at San Pietro, the Rapido River and Anzio. In the summer of 1944, Cudworth’s division took on more Nazis when they landed in southern France and fought their way toward Germany.

Cudsworth, like most veterans, prefers not to recount the details, simply saying, “we saw a lot of action.” Somewhere in the midst of all this, he remembers a superior telling him that he had been recommended for a Bronze Star.

“I wasn’t looking to be a hero,” Cudworth said. “I just wanted to get home. My family was worried about me. It wasn’t just me either. My brother, Frank, had been wounded in North Africa. That was before I bumped into him there. And my brother, John, was wounded during D-Day. Somehow, we all made it back. But I had some good friends I knew from home who didn’t.”

A memory Cudworth chooses to hang onto involved his trek into Rome.

“We had been sent to provide relief at Anzio and then we moved up to where we were just outside of Rome. I had a buddy who was a truck driver and he was being sent in to deliver supplies. So he invited me and two other friends to join him on the ride.”

While there, Cudworth and his friends made the acquaintance of a local who used to live in the States.

“He offered to be our tour guide for 25 lire.

And that’s how we got word that Pope Pius XII was going to give a blessing to American troops the

View The Giblin Report Thursday at 9 pm, Channel 76

Proud to Represent Clifton Assemblyman Thomas P. Giblin 1333 Broad St., Clifton, NJ 07013 office: 973-779-3125

www.assemblymangiblin.com

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th next morning. We were let in a me, Cudworth? Do you have a side door, about 20 of us. The brother named John? I said yes, I Pope also gave us rosary beads.” do. Well, he works with me, the In France, Cudworth rememChaplain said. Turns out this is ! bers attending a party at a village where John ended up after recoverW town hall. “I was there with a few ing from his wounds in Normandy. buddies and Free French troops We were able to spend a lot of time were there too. They all got up together.” and sang. La Marseillaise, the Things came full circle for French national anthem. When Cudworth when he was disthey were finished, they asked us charged—December 7, 1945. to join them in singing the “Another coincidence I guess,” he American national anthem. The said. A civilian again, Cudworth funny thing is, they knew the would go on to work in the tile w words to our anthem better than business for 28 years. He also spent we did. Maybe it was the wine or 19 years working as a parking brandy. It was a good party.” attendant at the Meadowlands Don Cudworth on the day he proposed Cudworth saw his last action Sports Complex. to the former Katherine O’Driscoll. of the war as American troops He and his wife, Catherine, were advanced toward the Rhine River. married for 63 years and raised four children, three sons, “I had become pinned down in a ditch by enemy fire. and his daughter, Dona, the mother of Scott Crum.

By the time I was rescued, I had frostbite.”

“I have no regrets. I’ve had a good life,” said Cudworth was shipped to a hospital in England for Cudworth, who now lives at the New Jersey Veterans treatment, where one more chance encounter occurred.

Home in Paramus. “I’m happy here and I’m well taken “The chaplain was making his rounds and he said to care of. Why ask for anything more?”

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RICH LEKSTON Memories from the Jungles of Vietnam

By Joe Hawrylko

t’s been nearly four decades since Rich Lekston has even thought about Vietnam. For years, those memories were tucked away in the back of his head, never to be relieved again. But upon dusting off his small collection of photos from his four year stint in the Air Force, Lekston’s memories from his service came rushing back. Recollections of brotherhood and unbreakable bonds are mixed with bloodshed and horror.

“June 18, 1970 I graduated CHS and on June 29, I joined the service. Actually, I was already gone by June 29,” recalled Lekston. “I just wanted to go. My country was in trouble, there was a war going on and I volunteered my services. I was 18 and I was out of high school.

It was patriotism. I just thought it was the right thing to do. My parents, they weren’t too happy but what are you going to do. They weren’t thrilled I was going into the service because there was a war going on.”

Lekston was shipped to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas for basic training, and completed his technical schooling at Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois to become a jet engine mechanic for the 42nd Strategic Air Command, specializing in B-52 bombers.

In 1973, Lekston was promoted to Sgt. and then shipped out to U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand, where he was given top secret clearance to work on U-2 spy planes.

“It was nice. They had military police all around the area to make sure that no one even came close to them,” he said. But Lekston’s job would soon become much more dangerous, as he was soon assigned to go out on flight status in the massive B-52s that he helped repair.

“When I was there, everybody said ti was the most dangerous time to be in Vietnam,” he said. “Even Bob Hope didn’t go that year. Too dangerous, they didn’t allow it. So no Bob Hope.”

Both on the ground and in the air, fighting was intense in Vietnam, with the NVA and Vietcong inflicting enough damage to force American officials to consider a cease-

I

fire to end the seemingly endless violence.

Though he was stationed in Thailand away from the main action, the enemy went to great lengths to make sure that American troops all over never felt at ease no matter how far from the front lines they may be.

“When I was there it was so goddamn dangerous, even in Thailand,” he said. “They snuck up on the base and sabotaged a B-52 at the end of the runway by itself. It was 2 am in the morning and all the sudden there’s an explosion and the B-52 blows up. They all start running back towards the fence where they cut it and tripped off a flare so now it’s like daylight over there. All five of them were killed.”

Raids were far less dangerous than flight missions, which Lekston did once promoted to crew chief.

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th “We were doing runs where we’d refuel planes that were going over to bomb Vietnam,” he said. “I also went on bombing missions, and when I tell you were flying high... we were dropping bombs. I’ve gotta be honest with you, getting hit with mortars, coming right through the goddamn plane the size of a large cup, we’re getting shot, even though we’re still flying.”

“I remember the pilot say we’re going up to 55,000 feet because we’re getting shot,” he added. “Everybody has a parachute if the situation occurs where you’ve gotta bail out, you bail out. But in that particular day, we didn’t have to and we came back to base. I don’t know how we got back to base sometimes. The tail section was practically destroyed one time.”

The constant action of the war left little down time for reflection, which was probably for the better.

“When you’re young and you’re with the rest of your GI friends, nobody thinks of dying, and if you think you’re going to get killed, you’re going out with your friends,” Lekston recalled. “I think every GI feels the same way. You’re with your comrades, nobody really fears death at that point. You just say, aw hell, if I’m gonna die...”

Getting shot down in enemy territory was a very real threat that existed every time an aircraft left the base.

During one mission in a C-131, the inevitable happened and Lekston’s plane was shot down in a hail of flak.

“We had to emergency land, we were getting hit, which was chaos,” he recalled. “The cockpit, everything was filled with black smoke. You couldn’t see anything.

We had to make it out of that plane in the dark. It was a crash landing, but no casualties, lets put it that way. It was a rough landing. I was a little annoyed that it was too low to jump.”

In an effort to slow the speed for the crash, the pilot intentionally clipped the wings on tree tops coming in.

“We had a good pilot, thank god,” said Lekston. “We went away from the plane because you don’t know who is in the area, and you know what they’re gonna do, shoot the plane and it’s gonna blow up.”

“We end up coming to a little village and while we’re approaching the village I spot a guy with a rifle— he saw us coming,” he added. “Now some of these villages, they were nice, but there were still communists in the area.”

It turned out that the man with the rifle was a Vietcong, and he, along with three other comrades, were quickly dispatched before being able to radio for help. Inside one 14

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

Rich and Debbie Lekston in a recent photo. Lekston has three children and three grandchildren.

of the hooches, Lekston found a hole with weapons and food, which the Americans quickly destroyed before moving on to the evacuation point.

“It took about a day and a half for them to get us,” he said. “We had K-rations. I was eating K-rations that were packed in 1945, little green cans that had 1945 on the side of them and I’m eating them.”

When Lekston and his buddies finally spotted the whirling blades of the chopper over the horizon, he realized they were being tracked the whole way.

“The VCs saw the helicopter coming, so now we’re getting on the helicopter and they start shooting at us again and we just made it out of there in time,” he said.

“The gunner that was shooting at them got hit, so when I got in the helicopter, I started firing at the VCs coming charging at us and then we got out of there. Thank god, the gunner made it.”

“You ever feel bullets come flying past your head?”

Lekston added. “You hear a whistling sound as they fly past your head. That’s a weird feeling.”

Lekston said that he simply took his brush with death as just a normal perils of his job, thinking little of it as he went out for his next mission a few days later.

“I think you have to have a strong mind,” he said. “If you’re weak minded, I think you’d go crazy.”

As lucky as he was to survive the crash and the subsequent skirmish on the ground, Lekston’s other job put him in far greater danger on a frequent basis.

The Cliftonite would fly on board a C-131, which housed controls for the U2 and J-75 spy planes that were vital in reconnaissance missions, flying low over enemy territory as a soldier controlled the aircraft from the much larger plane high above in the night skies.

However, unlike modern spy planes, the video tape on these 6 foot vessels had to be manually recovered. In addition, these large planes were constantly spotted and brought down by small arms fire behind enemy lines.

To recover this highly sensitive equipment, a single US soldier would jump out the back of a C-131 in the cover of darkness, retrieve the film, destroy the plane and await pick up. It was an exercise in stealth—no back up, and any kind of gun fire exchange would be sure to attract other enemies to the location.

“There was no battle, but there was just enemy snipers everywhere,” he recalled. “You know what they told us?

Save one bullet for yourself.”

Lekston completed more than a dozen of these harrowing jumps during his time in country, hiding in the dense darkness of the jungle, carefully watching for enemies that knew the terrain far better than he did.

“You could smell them,” he said of his senses. “You knew when you were coming up on them.”

Lekston miraculously came away unscathed from these excursions. Ironically, he would later be injured when not expecting an attack.

“I was in camp, and I was standing next to a jeep. I was on the passenger side, just sanding there, and a jeep came rolling by and stopped where I was standing,” he said. “This young black guy gets out of the jeep, steps a few feet away and just blows up. He stepped on a mine.”

The fellow soldier died on the spot, and Lekston was wounded by shrapnel in his leg and a burn to his shoul-

der, which he quickly patched up and went about his way.

“You’ve got to watch where you walk,” said Lekston.

The mine was on the outskirts of a camp that had just recently been constructed. “I didn’t even think about mines until that day.”

Lekston was lucky that day. Mines and boobytraps were one of the most dangerous hazards of the jungle, left behind by the NVA and Vietcong to mutilate American troops, in addition to fraying them mentally.

Lekston, however, returned home in Feb. 1974 intact, minus the scar on his leg and back. He quickly assimilated back into civilian life, eventually becoming a Clifton Police Officer in 1977. Upon returning home, he soon put those memories from the jungle to rest.

“Tell you the truth, I never talked about this shit for 40 years,” said Lekston, who retired from the CPD in 2003 and now works as a manager at Corrado’s Warehouse.

“People would ask me, ‘Oh did you see action over there,’ ‘Nah, never seen.’ I just never talked about it.”

“It’s just something you don’t really talk about,” he continued. “I didn’t want people to think I’m a crazy nut.

I went there, I did my share, I did my job very well.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t join the VFW. I just didn’t want to relive a bunch of stuff.”

But even after all of the terrible experiences that Lekston saw in country, the Cliftonite still views his experience as a positive one. He believes that his time in the military gave him a sense of personal responsibility that he would not have realized without enlisting.

“I recommend that every young man that gets out of high school join the service, but let it be during peace time,” said Lekston. “War is no fun for anyone involved.

Nobody wins. You have that in you, and you live with it for the rest of your life.”

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

15

FRED HANLE A Veteran of the Forgotten War

By Joe Hawrylko

“It was a very nice ocean crossing, very calm,” he nce a Marine, always a Marine. It’s something recalled. “It was about 16 days, something like that and that’s often repeated by USMC vets, and Fred I just went and did what I was supposed to do.”

Hanle is no different in that regard. Even after all Hanle’s ship docked at Inchon and then he was moved of the training, all of the battles and all the bloodshed, up to Munsan-Ni and was assigned to Able Company, 1st Hanle said he still looks back fondly on the brotherhood Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division as a rifleman. he forged with other young men on in Korea.

“The rifleman’s lot is not that Hanle’s choice of the Marines over great,” he laughed. “That’s why the Army was smade as a young man at they called them a grunt.” the age of 21 in 1952, not knowing that The Korean War was viewed as a it would come to define his life, and series of battles for seemingly irrelgive him a set of lifelong friends. evant hills, which would be claimed “I was a volunteer draftee. Oh no, one day, only to be lost hours later. it’s true. That time, they gave you a “There were two kind of phases choice. There was 80 guys and only to the war. In 1950, we went over two of us chose Marines (the rest went there, hard charging up the north, to the Army,” said Hanle, 80, who taking whatever territory they could graduated from Passaic High in 1950. get,” explained Hanle. “They got “Two of my friends were previously up to the Chosin Reservoir and a lot drafted into the Marines, so I figured In the fall of 1952, Hanley is pictured of people are under the impression I’d better go with the flow. My friends with friend, George Donnelly, who he that after the Chosin Reservoir, the went two weeks before I did.” reconnected with many years later war was over—not true. There was “I knew what to expect in writing to thanks to the help of Hanley’s son. more casualties after the Battle of the them and talking to people,” he said. “If Chosin than prior.” you go to Parris Island with your eyes closed, they’ll open When he was brought up to Munsan-Ni, Hanle was them up for you. It’s interesting, let’s put it that way. My then put online and quickly experienced the brutality of parents, they weren’t thrilled, but everyone was going at the Forgotten War. the same time at that age. I didn’t mind going in. When “When you see mortar rounds going off, then your you’re 21, you’re indestructible. And mentally and physrealize you can get hurt,” Hanle said. “The minute I went ically, they prepare you at Parris Island.” up on the line, it seemed most of those actions took place Hanle spent March and April of 1952 at the famous at night and most of them were patrol actions. It was a island, which is the USMC training station for recruits on long night. During the day, it was relatively quiet, but at the east coast. night is when things hit the fan.”

“I would say that 95 percent of the people in Parris “You kind of imagine things that aren’t there, for one Island at that time went into Korea,” he added. “From thing,” he added. “You start imagining things at night. there, you go to Camp Pendleton in California for Bushes seem to move. You’re in a fox hole or a bunker or advanced infantry training and then on the ship.” where ever, and you don’t get too much sleep. During the Hanle departed America for a world half an ocean day, they always found something for you to do, so away, arriving in Korea in August of 1952.

O

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

There are about 12,000 podiatrists in the United States, according to the Department of Labor, and Clifton podiatrist Thomas Graziano is one of only six who hold both a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (D.P.M.) and a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree.

Pre-operative

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that was the biggest thing, the lack of sleep. Everybody’s tired, they’d all fall asleep at the drop of a hat.”

Hanle quickly lost track of the many different locations he visited during his year and a half in country, each hill and every forrest looking just the same as the other. However, there was one particular hill that still stands out fresh in his mind.

“There was a day, Feb. 3, 1953, Hill Unjok, a day light raid, a company sized raid, where our company suffered 15 dead and about 85 wounded. It was a rough day. One man won the Medal of Honor on that hill,” recalled Hanle. “You’re talking about a couple hundred people.

Shit really hit the fan. During it, you take it as a matter of fact, of course, that’s just how things go. After it, you don’t think much about it.

When you’re in there, a lot of it really goes back to Parris Island and the discipline. That’s where it really comes in.”

“We overran that Hill Unjok, we were up there for about an hour,” he recalled. “I started prowling around through the trench lines and came upon a bunker that was burnt out and supposedly cleared. I walked past it and it wasn’t cleared and there was somebody in there.”

Luckily, the straggler only nicked Hanle’s leg, and he was able to

Light a candle for one who has passed...

Annual Holiday Memorial Program

Join us Wednesday, December 7th at 7:15 pm Please join us as we open our doors to assist individuals who have experienced the death of a family member or close friend.

This program is our way of reaching out to families we have served, and to others in our community, to let them know that they are not alone this holiday season. Everyone is welcomed to attend our memorial program.

The program is free. Reservations requested, but not required. Please call 973-249-6111

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

Michael A. Waller Director

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i n

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th continue on. “It made me realize how stupid I was,” he said. “I became a little more careful. ” Hanle managed to avoid further rouble and returned home in July 1953. The war ended shortly after.

“In fact, we were the first load to come home with the first repatriated prisoners of war,” he said. “They were released at the end of the war and we came home together in San Fransisco. You didn’t want to get taken prisoner there. It was a concern, not on your mind all the time, but you didn’t want it to happen.”

“To be honest with you, they call it the Forgotten War and it’s true,” he said. “I came back home and people said, ‘Oh, were you gone?’”

“You appreciate things more,” he said of his return. “I was going out with my wife, but we weren’t married at the time. She wrote me a lot

Fred Hanle in a recent photo.

of letters, a lot of letters. She probably ran out of things to say eventually. But it keeps your moral up, and you look forward to getting a letter.

Occasionally, you do get them up online, depending on how things worked.”

Hanle married his sweetheart, Virgina, in 1955, and they’ve spent 56 happy years together, sharing four children and five grandchildren.

Hanle worked for Wonderbread as a salesmen and retired in 1995.

With the spare time, he became involved with the Marine Corps League in Pompton Lakes, and has since reconnected with many of the young men he served in Korea with.

More than a half century later, that bond between the Marines still exists. Hanle just recently returned from Washington, D.C., where he and others held a reunion, which is held annually at a different location around the country.

“I positively, absolutely wouldn’t go through it again, even for a million dollars,” said Hanle. “But I wouldn’t take a million dollars for my experiences.”

92 YEARS OF SERVICE TO VETERANS, OUR COMMUNITY & PRESENT-DAY MILITARY

American Legion Quentin Roosevelt Post #8 16 West First St., Clifton Welcoming New Members M 1 & 973-253-9933 3 M EETINGS ST RD ONDAYS

Commander William Struwe 1st Vice Bob Miller • Chaplain/Historian Edward Noll 2nd Vice Mario Talamini • Adjutant Joseph Imperato Judge Advocate Jack Kuepfer • Exec. Committeeman Robert Cirkus Finance Officer Marty Neville • Finance Officer Bob Baran Sgt. At Arms James Scangarello Quentin Roosevelt (November 19, 1897 – July 14, 1918) was the youngest son of President Theodore Roosevelt. Family and friends agreed that Quentin, at left, had many of his father’s positive qualities and few of the negative ones.

Encouraged by his father, he joined the United States Army Air Service where he became a fighter pilot during World War I. Extremely popular with his fellow pilots and known for his daring, he was killed in aerial combat over France.

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

21

KEN DEGHETTO Navy Lieutenant in World War II

By Carol Leonard

t 87 years of age and still spry enough to play 18 holes of golf, Clifton native and World War II veteran Ken DeGhetto has lead a rich and full life. This included a stint in the Navy during which he was commissioned a lieutenant, a longtime successful career with the global engineering firm, Foster Wheeler, and a 67-year marriage to his wife, the former Helen Zschack, also originally from Clifton. The couple has two children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A CHS Class of 1941 alumnus, DeGhetto now lives in Livingston, but he has never forgotten his hometown roots. He grew up on Piaget Ave. and can remember when what is now Nash Park was nothing more than a garbage dump. Depression-era government workers under the Works Progress Administration, also known as the WPA, later turned the land into an attractive neighborhood playground.

DeGhetto attended School 11 through seventh grade, but since the school didn’t have an eighth grade, he had to transfer to School 1 for his last year of grammar school.

“I was just a fresh kid in those days, a real cut-up,” he said. “I would get into trouble a lot, but the last thing I would ever do was tell my parents about it. That would have gotten me into more trouble with them. Kids today just get away with too much.”

His first year of high school was spent at School 10, the ninth grade annex at the time, before moving on to the original Clifton High School, which now houses Christopher Columbus Middle School.

DeGhetto was an accomplished swimmer in his youth and was a member of the high school swim team as well as teams at the Passaic and Garfield YMCAs. “I wanted to join the Navy when I graduated from high school, but I was only 17,” he said. “My father encouraged me to take the exam for the Naval Academy.

A

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

Helen and Ken DeGhetto in a recent photo.

If I didn’t get in, he said he would sign the papers so I could go into the Navy.”

DeGhetto was offered a spot in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, but he couldn’t enroll until he turned 18 the following April. In the interim, he took a job making deliveries for The Herald News.

Although his future wife lived right around the corner from him, the couple didn’t begin dating until the summer after DeGhetto graduated from CHS. “Her father owned a butcher store in the neighborhood where we lived,” he said. “We knew of each other, but she was a year behind me in school and we never got together.”

By chance, the two were at the old Clifton movie theater on Main Ave. one day that summer and he walked her home.

For their first date, he invited her to a swim meet at the Garfield Y.

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th “When I asked her how she liked it, she told me it was pretty boring,” DeGhetto said.

For their second date, he decided to go all out to impress his new girlfriend. “I had $3 in my pocket and my father’s car,” he said. “We went to The Meadowbrook (a once famous big band dance hall in Cedar Grove) and danced to the music of Harry James.

I remember seeing Betty Grable sitting in the front row.”

Following his 18th birthday on April 1, 1942, DeGhetto enrolled in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Long Island.

“When the war started in December, they changed the four-year course to 18 months,” he said. “I received my third assistant marine engineering license in August 1943. The Navy needed engineering officers at the time, so at 19-and-a-half years-old I was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy.”

DeGhetto spent the war in the Pacific aboard the USS Cimmarron AO22, a fleet oiler. “We fueled the aircraft carriers and the other battle ships,” he said.

In September 1944 the ship returned to the shipyard in San Pedro, California, for repairs. DeGhetto flew back to LaGuardia Airport for a 15-day leave. “My parents picked me up and they had my girlfriend, Helen, with them,” he said. “On the way home I asked Helen to marry me and she said yes.”

The couple was married on Nov. 5, 1944, and they traveled back to California by train for the second half of the ship crew’s leave. When the ship went back to the war, Helen returned to New Jersey.

DeGhetto earned seven battle stars during his tour of duty in the war. He stayed in the Navy after the war ended as an engineering officer and was promoted to lieutenant. In April 1946 he left the service to attend col-

Helen and Ken DeGhetto on Nov, 5, 1944.

lege under the GI bill. “I decided the Navy wasn’t the life for me as a married man,” he said.

DeGhetto stayed on in the Naval Reserves and enrolled at a two-year college. He later transferred to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY., where he and his wife lived in student housing. “With just a small living allowance, we lived from hand to mouth,” he said. “But it was one of the best times of our lives.”

The couple’s first child, a daughter, Donna, was born during DeGhetto’s last year in college, and he graduated third in a class of 850.

After receiving his degree in mechanical engineering, DeGhetto was offered a job with Foster Wheeler Corp., but he turned it down to take a research position with North American Aviation in Downey, California. He worked on Nuclear Powered Aircraft and attend-

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th ed graduate school part-time at the University of Southern California.

DeGhetto and his family stayed in California for 18 months before returning to the East Coast. “I decided that I didn’t want to stay in research all my life,” he said.

The couple bought a home in Glen Rock and DeGhetto went to work for Foster Wheeler, first as a project engineer and later a field engineer for the company’s refinery division.

His prestigious career with Foster Wheeler included later appointments as executive vice president and president of the Foster Wheeler International Co. It required relocations for DeGhetto and his family to Louisiana and Nova Scotia as well as eight years in London and three years in Milan, Italy, where his children, daughter Donna and son Glenn, attended American schools. In 1982 he was appointed chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, a position he held until his retirement in 1987.

DeGhetto estimates that, including his years in the military, college and job-related moves, he and his wife relocated 31 times over the course of their marriage.

After retiring from Foster Wheeler, DeGhetto started

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

a consulting firm, a business in which he is still an active partner. He also became involved in fund-raising for his two alma maters, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

He was the recipient of the Davies Medal for Engineering Achievement as well as the Albert Fox Medal and the RAA Fellows Award from Rensselaer.

In 2007 DeGhetto was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. At the ceremony he had an opportunity to meet U.S. Senator John McCain, who served as commencement speaker.

DeGhetto still keeps in touch with many of his shipmates from the Navy. In fact, last fall he and his wife traveled to San Antonio, Texas, to attend the latest reunion of the crew from the USS Cimarron AO22.

When not involved with his consulting business, fund-raising activities or playing golf, DeGhetto likes to visit with his children and grandchildren, who all live in various parts of the country. He also enjoys the company of his wife. “She still introduces me as her first husband,” he chuckled. “She says there’s always hope that something better will come along.”

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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We Honor the Men & Women Who Have Served Our Nation...

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

MY HERO, UNCLE BOB Ed Holster, Vietnam Vet, and WWII Vet, Robert Janscek

By Joe Hawrylko

d Holster has a story he wants to share with Clifton in honor of Veterans Day. Though the former Clifton Police Officer is a veteran himself, having served two years in the Army during the Vietnam War, this tale is not about him.

Rather, it is about a man he calls Uncle Bob—Robert Janscek—a World War II Army vet who left his parents and seven siblings in the Slavic section of Passaic at 22 years old to fight the Japanese Imperial Army in America’s island hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater.

When Holster himself was drafted by Uncle Sam in 1968, it was Uncle Bob who spent many hours talking to him, preparing his nephew for the mental and physical rigors of Army bootcamp, war and being a man.

Today, Holster still looks to the family patriarch for guidance and advice. Now 91, Janscek, talks and moves like a man half his age. He keeps a stationary bike in the basement of his Concord St. home, rising with the sun each morning to log 10 miles—a habit he’s kept for over 20 years and 78,000 miles. He’s physically and mentally fit, still every bit as vibrant as he was decades ago.

“It was a hard life that did it for him,” laughed Holster.

Born on Jan. 4, 1920, Janscek grew up in Passaic’s Slavic neighborhood of Dundee, knowing only of pover-

E

ty. The country was in the midst of The Great Depression, and his parents did what they could to provide for eight children.

“It was a pretty tough time,” he said. “You ever hear of a mustard sandwich? Two pieces of bread, some mustard—mustard sandwich.

“You get used to that hungry business. My mother was pretty adept. We got along pretty good. But we were as poor as church mice.”

For most of The Depression, Janscek recalled that his father was out of work, and the family got by on pay from odd jobs that Janscek could pick up and money his older sister earned, who worked pretty steady in the Botany Mills.

“I tried to sign up for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps.), but you couldn’t unless your family was on relief. My dad said to me, I’ll kill you first,” laughed Janscek. However, he did get on eventually as an alternate when people on welfare turned down jobs, and Janscek was shipped out to Washington State, where we worked for six months putting out forrest fires.

In 1937, at 17 years old, Janscek’s sister got him a job in the Botany mills, where he worked for two years before joining Manhattan Rubber. He was employed by the manufacturer until the outbreak of war following the Bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th “I was listening to a football game and at 2:30 pm, they broke on the radio to cut off the game to say that Japan had attacked Pear Harbor,” he recalled. “I expected to go to war.”

However, Janscek was not immediately called upon by his country to serve, and he was one of the very last in his neighborhood to leave for war.

“I actually was really wishing that I’d get drafted,” he said. “All of my friends were a year older than me, and were already in the service. It was only old men around and young girls. You feel a bit like a coward sitting there. They drafted 2 million men in 1942.”

Janscek finally had his number called on March 26, 1942. At 22 years old, he was selected to join the Army and fight on the front lines for America.

“If you were young, you were infantry. If you were older, you were artillery,” he said. Janscek was assigned to the 77th Infantry Division and shipped out to Fort Dix before being transfered to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for basic training.

The 77th was sent to Louisiana in February 1943 for another 12 months. After some additional training in Arizona, the Division was sent to California to embark for the Pacific Theater. Janscek recalled the massive amount of manpower boarding ships bound for parts unknown to fight the Japanese threat.

“You take a ferry as you go on the ship. The Army has a way of motivating you,” he said. “You’re going up and there’s this big banner that said “Through here pass the best damn soldiers in the world.”

To prepare for intense fighting on the myriad of little islands in the Pacific Ocean, the 77th was brought to Hawaii in April, where Janscek trained in jungle warfare for three months as he awaited orders.

In July, the 77th and other divisions were mobilized for action, but Janscek and other troops were not informed of their exact destination until shortly before the action was to commence. This was standard military procedure to keep the highly sensitive information secret. However, in part due to training, fear of the unknown never bothered Janscek.

“You really don’t have those feelings,” he said. “You herded around like little sheep. You go on the transport, you get off the transport and you start your career.”

It turned out that his Army career was to begin on Guam (Now known as the Second Invasion of Guam), a 30

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

30 by 9 mile island that the Japanese had taken from the Americans earlier in the war.

American brass saw the island fit as the staging point for further island hopping and bombing campaigns, but the island’s cliffs and heavy surf, combined with a Japanese force estimated at more than 20,000, set the stage for a brutal battle that began on July 21, 1944. The Americans shelled the island to soften up the landing for ground troops, numbering at around 36,000, which included the 3rd Marine Division, the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade and the 77th Infantry.

Janscek almost never even made it onto the beach that night. His transport departed for Guam around 6 pm, but got lost enroute to the landing zone. After drifting around for some time, the craft then went dead. They were brought back, stuck on a new craft and shipped out at 1:30 am only to run into trouble again: the 77th Infantry landing zone was surrounded by a reef, and Janscek, along with the rest of his division, had to wade in from nearly 600 yards out with a hail of gunfire raining down from fortified Japanese gun nets.

“You’re wet, you’re scared, you’re hungry. You’re everything,” Janscek recalled. “And then the officer says, ‘dig in, expect mortars.’ But you can’t in the sand.”

With little cover, the 77th waited on the beach for orders on where to proceed.

“You don’t sleep. Everyone’s all pepped up,” he said.

“We were to attack through Purple Heart Valley (the nickname for a ridge where they were attacking). That was a hell of a thing to be doing on the first day.”

The troubles continued as the Division progressed.

The lead outfit during the advancement was to carry colored panels so that Navy pilots could distinguish between enemy and friendly targets, but a mix up led to American aircraft strafing their own brothers as Janscek and the 77th engaged the enemy head on.

“Infantry are called dogfaces. We’re always on the front lines. It’s like instinct,” he said. “We trained for two years almost. It just comes naturally. Every day, you get a little smarter, a little sharper. At the end, the 77th was nicknamed the 305th Marines for our valor on Guam.”

The Americans and Japanese engaged in a ferocious battle on the island until Aug. 10, when the exhausted and supply deprived Imperial Army could no longer hold its lines.

In the closing days Janscek rememof battle of Guam, bers stories, and Janscek quickly recalled how those learned that the tales led to reoccurJapanese rarely surring dreams long after rendered, and would he was discharged. fight right up until the “I had the same end if given the dream for 40 years, chance, with some over and over. Not even prefering suicide every night, someover capture. times just once a “Sometimes mopweek or just once in a ping up was worse while, but always the than the fighting,” he same dream” said said. “They’re most Janscek. “We’d be desperate, more hunattacking on some Ed Holster in 1969 and Robert ‘Uncle Bob’ Janscek, circa 1945. gry.

That’s when island and start they’re trying to kill retreating—well a as many Americans as possible. Sometimes they’d dress strategical withdrawal, American soldiers never like civilians.” retreat—and I’m carrying a mortar that weighs about 42 Like their opponents, American infantry feared being pounds. I’m afraid that I’m going to get caught but I taken captive by the Japanese, whose treatment of prisalways make it back.” oners was notorious.

“But this one time, I get caught by the Japs.

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th They have me by my hands and feet,” he continued.

“And I’m just thinking, well, guess this is it. And that’s it. I never had that dream again. I don’t know what it means. Maybe that’s how it was supposed to end?”

The action and tales from the battlefield eventually take a toll on even the strongest willed soldiers. “You start to think your luck is gonna run out,” Janscek explained.

“After every campaign, you see less and less original guys. There’s more new guys than old guys.”

“I became very superstitious,” he added. “I had a jacket that I wore for 65 days straight.” The faded green jacket—actually a Marine uniform that was incorrectly given to him—still hangs in Janscek’s closet, with signatures from all of the friends he served with. “Laughter–it’s true—it helps you keep calm, sane, too” he added.

It was a combination of mementos, superstitions, training and plain old luck that helped Janscek as the 77th moved throughout the many treacherous islands in the Pacific. The 77th Division spent the duration of the war hopping throughout the Pacific, engaging the Japanese at Leyte, Ipil, Ormoc, Kerama Retto, Keise Shima, Ie Shima and Okinawa.

Located about 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa is where the Imperial Army put up their strongest fight, as the Americans sought to secure the island for a staging point for an invasion on the mainland. “Okinawa was about the toughest fighting. We’d get bombed every night,” recalled Janscek. The battle of attrition started on April 1 and ended on June 21, 1945.

“It was so bad on Okinawa that we were told that if we could advance 100 yards a day, take it. It took us about 33 days to advance about 3,300 yards.”

After taking Okinawa, preparations were being made for a ground invasion of Japan, for which the Americans expected resistance far worse than what had been seen on any of the other islands to date. However, fortunately for Janscek, the war ended a few weeks after the capture of Okinawa with the atomic bombings in early August. “I went in as a young man at 22 years old,” said Janscek. “I came out in 1945 and I felt like an old man.”

But even after all of the horrors he saw, he will always look back fondly on the bonds that were formed with his fellow soldiers.

“I always say that was what was the best thing about the service. Some of those guys were the nicest guys I’ve met,” he said. “Good civilians. More like family.”

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Ed Holster, Vietnam Vet, 1968-1970 When he was drafted into the Army in 1968, Ed Holster didn’t know what to expect, so he turned to his the man he called Uncle Bob, who helped him navigate the pratfalls of the military and war. When he was in country from October of 1968 to Oct. 1969, it was the lessons he learned from Janscek that helped keep him keep him sane and intact.

“At times, it really is a sense of humor that keeps you sane,” he said, referencing what his uncle told him. “You’re sitting there, thinking you’re never going to see another morning. You’re bogged down in a rice patty with no reinforcements. But just joking around with a guy—if you keep it so serious, you’ll get messed up. You had to laugh to keep going.”

Holster explained how living in the jungle, under constant threat from both enemy and disease, takes an immense toll on one’s well being.

“You’re always exhausted, You’d look at your feet and would just think, how are they still moving?” said Holster. “But we’d get hit by an ambush and you’d go from total exhaustion to 100 percent in an instant. It’s silence going through the jungle, then chaos.”

“It was so hot all the time,” he continued. “I remember getting mail, it’s your life. You called it the real world. The sweat would be everywhere, on your fingers, on the paper and it would melt away.

You couldn’t keep the letters because they’d rot in your pocket. Cigarettes, they’d snap in half.”

Holster said that, while he doesn’t regret his time in the service, he was bothered by the lack of direction and the treatment returning Veterans received.

“Victory wasn’t in sight. You’d lose men over the same space all the time, then you never get it back. It was like there was never an end, no light at the end of the tunnel. LBJ said we’re not there to win the war,” he said. “One time I was searching a dead Vietnamese for papers and I found a picture of him with his kid and family. From his perspective, he thinks I’m the bad guy invading his country. And from my perspective, he’s the bad guy.”

“Tell me,” he said. “Who hates more than a solider who went through it?”

VETERAN COUPLE Emil and Ethel Kudlack,WWII Vets, Celebrate 65 Years

By Joe Hawrylko his November, Emil and Ethel Kudlack will celebrate 65 years of marriage. The two Cliftonites were wed on Nov. 14, 1946, not long after being discharged from the Army, where both proudly served during World War II. “I was drafted on June 26, 1941, about six months before the country went to war,” recalled Emil. “I was surprised that I went into the service so early,”

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Ethel and Emil Kudlack, who celebrate 65 years of marriage in November, both served in World War II.

Stationed out of Westover Field, MA, Emil was on leave when the United States entered the war in 1941.

“I was reading the paper and there was an announcement that came over the radio about the attack, and that all servicemen were to report to their stations immediately,” he said. “I thought, well, I’m going to be in the service for a while.”

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th What original started out as a Sergeant, was later transfered to one year stint turned into a more the 369th Bomb Squadron than 4 year service that took before being discharged in him to Europe. Emil was October of 1945. trained in automotive repair, but Ethel entered the war much later became a personnel clerk later in 1943 as a volunteer after when a position opened up. graduating from nursing school Emil was sent to England in at Presbyterian Hospital. “There 1942 and was stationed in was a lot of nurses that graduatThurleigh with the 1628th ed and went to the Army, and I Ordinance Co., about eight went along too,” she said. “I miles north of London. was in Fort Dix for a while Emil Kudlack served in the Army Air Corps, “Off on the distance, on Ethel was in the 97th Army General Hospital. before I went overseas to cloudy nights you could see the Wheatly, England.” bombs bursting in the clouds,” he said. Emil, a Staff Ethel served in the 97th General Hospital as a 1st lieutenant, where she took care of wounded officers. While stationed there, she was visited by her brother, Arthur, who was also serving in the European Theater. Later on in the war, with the Allies advancing towards Berlin, she was transfered closer to the front lines in April of 1945.

“I was sent to Germany when the war was almost ever. There were originally going to send us to the Pacific, but they sent us there instead,” recalled Ethel. “While we were going to Germany, we flew over France and Belgium. That was when they announced the death of FDR.” Ethel also recalled the time she danced with Five Star Army General Omar Bradley. “My girlfriend and I heard that he would be there and we were going to the hotel where he was staying,” she said. “I don’t recall where this happened, but my girlfriend and I just decided to see what he was like.”

Ethel was discharged on Feb. 21, 1946, and not long after, started dating Emil.

“She was walking in uniform with another nurse on Main Ave. in Clifton as I happened to be shopping,” he recalled. Little more than a year later, Emil and Ethel were wed on Nov. 14, 1946. The couple will cele8 Franklin Pl., Rutherford • 201-636-2355 brate their 65th anniversary this year, and have two children, two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

WALT PRUIKSMA World War II Veteran & Historian

By Joe Hawrylko

alt Pruiksma may now be 88 years old, but the World War II veteran is still as sharp as ever.

“I could go to Normandy, France, and tell you where I dug my first foxhole,” laughed Pruiksma, who served in WWII as a part of Company D, 783rd Military Police Battalion from 1943 to 1945. “My mind is as sharp as it was 60 years ago. My body isn’t.”

And as a member of the ever shrinking Greatest Generation, Pruiksma has always been proud of his role in World War II, and its place within the annals of history. He was one of thousands of Cliftonites to serve country in the conflict between the Allies and Axis powers, and one of the fortunate ones to make it back home.

Nearly a half century after returning home, Pruiksma decided to pay tribute to his fallen Clifton brothers from WWII by combing through years worth of obituaries to craft a detailed account of each war dead—an estimated 235 people by Pruiksma’s count.

“Back in 1993 or 1994, I decided to research the Harold News microfilms at the Clifton Library from Dec. 8, 1941 to Dec. 31, 1946—the end of World War II—taking down information about Clifton’s war dead,” said Pruiksma, 88. “Then from that info, I got in touch with their family members, friends and added what I knew of the dead service members. I wrote stories about each of them, and those stories were published in the Dateline Journal, one a day (the series was published in 1994. Pruiksma’s was also the source information for a WWII project in Clifton Merchant Magazine).”

The series was a hit with both residents and veterans of WWII, and the entire collection was slated to be cataloged. “The Monument Committee purchased leather albums and were going to place those stories

W

Walt Pruiksma served in WWII in Company D 783rd Military Police Battalion. In the 90s, Pruiksma went through obituaries from during the war to craft stories about Cliftonites that were killed in battle.

in the albums and present them to the Clifton Library,” said Pruiksma.

“My wife and I decided to move down the shore and turned over the albums to (Air Force Colonel Frank) Sefchik,” he said. “Frank was to complete the project and turn it into the library, but unfortunately Frank’s home was completely destroyed by a fire and unfortunately, everything was lost.”

Pruiksma was devastated for his friend’s loss, and assumed that the project he had worked on for years was now completely scrapped. However, it was another veteran and friend that ultimately November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th revived the project so that it could be completed.

Pruiksma’s neighbor from Clifton, Charles Stephan, who served as a typist in the United States Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946, was a fan of his friend’s work that ran in the Dateline Journal years earlier and had saved clippings from almost every single story that ran.

“I was shocked,” said Pruiksma.

“I almost fell out of the chair.

Charles asked me if I wanted the album and all I could utter was yes.”

“I knew a lot of those people that were killed in the war,” said Stephan. “I had put them all in an album and when he mentioned they were lost in the fire, I gave them to him.”

With his project back in his hands, Pruiksma called Main Memorial Library to see if it could

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be submitted nearly 15 years after it was presumed to be lost to the fire at his friend’s home. Reference librarian Kathy Grimshaw assumed the task of retyping more than 200 stories that Pruiksma had crafted from obituaries, friends, family and personal memories years ago.

“I’m thrilled that the library helped me with this,” said Pruiksma. “Kathy cataloged it all. She must have spent a lot of time on it.”

“It was a little tough reading them,” said Grimshaw. “There were so many young guys, leaving behind families.

Some of the guys themselves were practically kids. But it’s really good that we have this. A lot of people do family research by us. Things like this help out.”

The entire album can be viewed at the Main Memorial Library, 292 Piaget Ave., 973-772-5500.

The Clifton Leader, operated by the LaCorte family, was one of Pruiksma’s sources.

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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JUSTIN EYET Serving in Afghanistan and Iraq

By Joe Hawrylko

ustin Eyet is not from Clifton originally, but he’s been adopted by the veterans of Albion Place VFW 7165 on Valley Rd., where he became a member last year after stopping in randomly for a drink.

The 23 year old native of Califon, NJ was then a student at Montclair State University thanks to the G.I. Bill, having served in Iraq from 2008 to 2009 after enlisting in the National Guard in 2006.

“I was going to the Quickchek and I passed by and got curious,” he said. “I went in and enjoyed the environment and the company and cheap beer. I just saw the VFW sign and went in for a beer with a date and I liked the place, so the next week I put in membership paperwork.”

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

“Even though most of the guys are older and haven’t been to Iraq or Afghanistan besides a select few, there is always a common talk between any man in the military,” he said. “There’s always something to talk about and it is nice to be able to go in for a beer and talk to somebody, make good friends in the community and help out other vets in need.”

When Eyet was deployed to Afghanistan in June 2011, he kept in contact with his friends at the VFW. Clifton Fire Fighter and Military Historian Rich DeLotto is one of many that Eyet regularly corresponds with. “I talk to my family a lot, and I stay in touch with Richie and the other guys from the post,” he said.

Eyet, who just signed up for six more years, plans on going for a career in the Army. He is currently a Sergeant in the 182nd Infantry, Alpha Company, 2nd Platoon, and is stationed at Forward Operating Base Morales Fraizer, located in the Kapisa Providence in Northeast Afghanistan. The mission is to provide security for an Air Force unit responsible for reconstruction work. Eyet is slated to return in March 2012.

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TRAGIC NOVEMBER Clifton & Passaic Lost 24 Youth in First Week of November1961

By Rich DeLotto

During the Vietnam era, Cliftonites served our nation with honor but 30 of our neighbors did not return. Among the stories we have shared in the past is this tragic tale of the Nov. 6, 1961 plane crash when 21 local men died stateside on their way to boot camp. Recently Mary Birchell, brother of the late Harold Skoglund wrote and asked if we would recall the story on its 50th anniversary.

t began on Sunday, November 5.

US Navy Seaman Louis F. Lynch Jr., 18, was killed in a ship fire aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation. Lynch had only been in the Navy a short time; he enlisted immediately after graduating from Passaic High School in June 1961. Upon his death, Passaic City Hall was draped with memorial bunting to honor his memory.

However, an even greater tragedy was about to unfold.

The same day Lynch lost his life, Harold Skoglund was having an early Thanksgiving dinner with his family.

The 22-year-old CHS grad, married for just over a year, had been drafted and was getting ready to report for active duty on Nov. 8. On that fateful Wednesday at 7 am, Skoglund and 27 other men began their military induction process at the Paterson City Hall Annex before being bused to Newark for tests. Before being sworn in, six men were excused and sent home for a variety of reasons. One of the excused recruits from Clifton, Joseph Niland, was deferred from induction because of an unpaid traffic ticket.

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

There were seven Clifton men among the 74 aboard the transport that crashed on its way to Fort Jackson, S.C. on Nov. 8, 1961. They included, from left: Vernon Griggs, CHS ’56, Robert Rinaldi, CHS ’57, Harold Skoglund, CHS ’57 and Willis Van Ess Jr., CHS ’58. Not pictured are Robert DeVogel, Robert Marositz and Raymond Shamberger.

On the facing page is Harold and Raymond Skoglund at their West First Street home in 1949.

The remaining 22 received their oaths, were given a box lunch and bused to Newark Airport. The plane departed at 6:30 pm and made stops in Scranton, Pa. and Baltimore, Md. to pick up additional recruits. The final destination for the 74 men was Fort Jackson, S.C. where they would begin basic training.

However, at about 9:15 pm, the pilot maydayed from 10 miles west of Richmond, Va. The airport tower gave the flight clearance to land at Boyd Field and prepared

for the worst. The plane approached the landing zone, but aborted because of trouble with the landing gear. It circled to the south in order to attempt another approach. Losing altitude, it crashed in a swampy marshland. Witnesses said there were explosions after the impact which engulfed the plane in flames.

Thousands of onlookers created a massive traffic jam on Rt. 60, making it difficult for emergency vehicles to get through. Others that lived closer

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VETERANS PARADE November 6th to the airport wandered through the woods near the wreckage, hampering the efforts of police on the scene. It took more than an hour for the first fire engine to get past the mud, trees and bystanders.

Once at the site of the crash, all the firefighters could do was contain the fire. Only two people survived the crash: the pilot, who

escaped from a cockpit window, and the flight engineer, who found his way out through an emergency door.

Passaic historian Mark Auerbach provided the names of 14 Passaic boys who died on that plane on November 8, 1961, along with their year of graduation. They include Henry J. Barna, 1957; Robert A.

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DeVogel, 1956; Donald N. Gurtman, 1956; Joseph Kandravy, 1956; Donald R. Kaplan, 1956; Valeri Korscuch, 1957; Louis Lynch; David N. Moore, 1957; Bernard B. Olster, 1956; Patrick R. Purcell, 1957; Raymond Shamberger, 1957; Stephen P. Soltesz, 1957; Richard J. Vanderhoven, 1957; Richard D. Wall, 1957.

Tragedy continued that fateful week in 1961 when on Friday, Nov. 10, Navy Photographer Second Class Dennis M. Dyt, 20, was transporting two Navy personnel when his car went out of control and overturned near Upper Marlboro, Md. Both passengers survived the accident, but Dyt did not. Ironically, the Clifton resident had less than four months to go on his tour of duty.

During that one-week period, in early November 1961, 24 men between 18 and 23 years old from our area died tragically while in military service.

During the two weeks following the accidents, the remains of these servicemen would be identified and returned and their funerals were held at various churches in our community. With this article, we hope to keep their memories alive.

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Honor those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and commemorate the memories of the approximately 300 Cliftonites who died while in service to our nation by attending the Clifton Veterans Parade on Nov. 6. It begins at 2 pm on Sylvan Ave., continues on Main Ave. and concludes with services at the Main Memorial Monument near Piaget Ave.

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Clifton’s Annual Halloween Parade and Harvestfest was snowed out on Sunday, Oct. 30 for the first time in history but Cliftonites still did their trick or treating on Oct. 31.

On the following pages you’ll find photos from across town and also details on the rescheduled costume contest...

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On Oct. 31, Passaic County Clerk Kristin M. Corrado joined nine couples in matrimony as part of the Clerk’s annual Halloween Day Wedding Celebration. Pictured in the costumes below are Juan C. Ruiz and Veronica K. Moscol. The couple in Bettlejuice costumes are Pablo R. Artavia and Veronica Jordan. At the center of both photos is Kristin Corrado.

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Nove m b e r 6 , 2 0 1 1 • H A L LOW E E N C O S T U M E C O N T E S T • Ci t y Ha l l

While the Halloween Parade and Harvestfest cannot be rescheduled, the Recreation Dept. is hosting a costume contest judging on Nov. 6 in front of City Hall.

Be there by 12:15 pm to register and if you are already registered, be sure to wear your number. The contest includes; youth ages 0 – 12, teens and adults, families and floats and pets. Prizes will be awarded for the best costumes in each category. Every participant will receive a small goody bag.

Park along the side or in the back of then Municipal Complex.

Remember there are still some great events scheduled for the reminder of the year, such as, Clifton Candyland, 5k Stampede and Health Walk, Bee Keeping Seminar, Door Decorating Contest, Veterans Concert and Senior Fit Day. Visit the Recreation Dept. at 900 Clifton Ave., City Hall, 2nd floor or call 973 470-5956.

And for the future, the rainout hotline number for events is 973 470-5680.

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Below the Surface...

by Christopher de Vinck

Photo: Passaic County Elks Cerebral Palsy Center

She contracted cerebral palsy, and after some time, her mother and father weren’t able to care for her, so I left my home in New Orleans to come to New Jersey...

Thirty-seven years ago I dated a young woman, Betty, a woman who loved to make silver jewelry, worked in a cerebral palsy center, collected children’s books, and loved her family. It was clearly evident to me that Betty knew how to love. She was a woman who took delight in the simple things: music, sunlight, the ocean, her brother and sister.

Because of wistful circumstances and different choices, we went our separate ways, and I never saw Betty again. Soon after I met and fell in love with Roe. She loved children, and reading; she exuded a purity of heart, and best of all, Roe loved me, and I love her. We have three children, share a small house in Pompton Plains, a cat, and thirty-five years of life, labor and love.

And so it goes. The older we get, the more it seems that we are traveling in circles. Back, back, back in time when I was a young man, back to a time when I took Betty to see a New York play, back when we hiked

along the Palisades Cliffs, and suddenly there was Betty, thirty-seven years later, on the front page of a local newspaper with her severely disabled niece, Liza.

I called Betty. She and I were both delighted and a bit flabbergasted that we were actually in touch after so many years.

While I wanted to speak with Betty about shared memories and about Roe and our children, she wanted to tell me, above all else, about her niece, Liza.

“She contracted cerebral palsy, and after some time, her mother and father weren’t able to care for her, so I left my home in New Orleans to come to New Jersey and to tend to Liza. You should see, Chris, how Liza smiles. She is severely disabled. She can’t speak or walk. She is low functioning, but she brings me such joy when I am with her. I love Liza. She is named after me.

I take care of her. I’ve taken home health-care classes. I have a chance to do something wonderful.”

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

MOMENTS of GRACE In my thirteen books, I’ve devoted my writing to universal themes of goodness and hope, and I am a national spokesman for the disabled. My Doubleday book, The Power of the Powerless, is about my disabled brother Oliver. You might have read about him in the Wall Street Journal or in the Reader’s Digest.

I was invited to the Vatican to close the international conference on the disabled and share the story about my brother, and afterward I was personally introduced to Pope John Paul II who blessed me and Oliver. Eunice Kennedy Shriver asked me to write for the Special Olympics after she read about Oliver, and I have given hundreds of talks all over the country about the disabled.

I have visited many, many facilities for the handicapped, and ironically I stumbled upon a local story about a woman I cared for many years ago, a story about her niece who lives with wheelchairs and harnesses, and I was reminded all over again about the transforming power the powerless have over us.

When my mother and father found out that their son, Oliver, had no intellect, and had no hope for living what we call a normal life, my parents were in agony and filled with heartbreak, but then the doctor leaned over his desk and asked what my parents wanted to do?

“Place Oliver in an institution?”

My mother, without hesitation, said, simply, “We will take Oliver home, of course.”

The good doctor said, “Then take Oliver home and love him.” And that is what my mother and father did for thirty-two years.

When President Reagan was in the White House, he read my essay in the Wall Street Journal about my brother Oliver, and then he wrote me a personal letter: “We sometimes fall in the habit of thinking that the weakest among us, like your brother Oliver, are a burden we must stoically bear. But you show that they can teach us the deepest lessons of love. Your essay will help many people to recognize this truth.”

Each Thanksgiving Day, we celebrate with a sumptuous meal and an unrestrained football game on the television, but just beneath the superficial traditions, we harbor the true meaning of Thanksgiving.

Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) was my closest, personal friend for eighteen years. I remember one Thanksgiving he and I were talking on the phone,

and I asked him what he thought of the football game, and he chuckled saying, “You know, Chris, I don’t know much about football, but when people ask me about a particular game that is on television I say with confidence, ‘It’s a running game.’” He and I laughed, and then Fred said something that has always stayed with me. “I like Thanksgiving because it reminds me of the most important gift.”

I knew what Fred was going to say next, because he lived this in his extraordinary life. “The greatest gift you can give someone is your complete honest self.”

See? My mother and father took Oliver home and loved him. Betty took Liza home and loved her. Roe Dr. Christopher de Vinck’s most recent book is Moments of Grace. Chris is the Language Arts Supervisor at CHS and the author of 13 books, his best known work is The Power of the Powerless a frank reflection on the struggles and joys of loving his severely disabled brother. To order the book, call 1-800218-1903 or look for it in bookstores or online.

and I fell in love. Fred Rogers promoted love among his friends. The president of the United States wrote about the deepest lessons of love. I shook the hand of the pope because my mother taught my family and me how to love Oliver.

Thanksgiving is a bipartisan event. Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1861, and in 1939 President Roosevelt moved the day to the fourth Thursday of every November.

Thanksgiving is also the one holiday we can all celebrate no matter what religion we subscribe to, no matter who we are, or where we come from.

This is the day we can say who we love and why we love, and in so saying, we express our gratitude in thanksgiving.

Enjoy Affordable* Independent Living for Seniors at the

Miriam Apartments at Daughters of Miriam Center/The Gallen Institute A Jewish continuum of care campus

at 127-135 Hazel St., Clifton, NJ 07011

973-253-5310 • www.daughtersofmiriamcenter.org

I

n a beautiful, suburban setting experience privacy in your one bedroom or studio apartment with supportive services while remaining independent with dignity. The Miriam Apartments, located on the 13-acre campus of Daughters of Miriam Center/The Gallen Institute, are available to seniors age 62 and over and/or persons with mobility impairments. Independent living at the apartments is just one facet of the continuum of care offered at Daughters of Miriam Center. Whatever your needs might be–independent living, rehabilitation, or skilled nursing care–the Center offers it all, in a Jewish environment, in one location.

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Rents are government subsidized. Tenant rental portion is based on annual income. Admission is based on a waiting list.

If you have a disability & need assistance with the application process, please call Linda Emr at 973-253-5311.

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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Paramus

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Pictured are some of PC’s students from Clifton.

OUSE HCome and see why over 125 students from Clifton are making PC their high school of choice!

Members of the PC Class of 2011 earned about $32 million in scholarships and grants and are attending such prestigious universities as: Bentley, Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, Colgate, Columbia, Cornell, Fairfield, George Washington, Marquette, Notre Dame, NYU, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Villanova, and Yale. Clifton graduates earned over $1.5 million of these scholarships and grants.

Scan the QR code for more information Photo Credits: Image Art Studio, Glen Rock, NJ • info@imageart-studio.com

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

• 124 College Preparatory courses, including 27 Honors and 16 AP level courses • Active Campus Ministry Program, including retreat, community service, and worship opportunities • Vibrant Performing Arts Programs, including Marching Band, Glee Club/Show Choir, Drama/Musical, Band, Dance, and Concert Choir • New! Preparation for Careers in Medical Professions • Cost Effective Tuition for Families • Large School Offerings, Small Class Size • Fully Wireless Facility • 27-Acre Scenic Campus • Stable, Strong, and Focused on the future

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B OY S C LU B Ha l l o f Fa m e

Sean Gunby & 11 Others in Boys Club Hall of Fame The Boys & Girls Club of Clifton holds a special place in the hearts of many. If you are among that crowd, get ready for an evening of partying on Nov. 18 at 7 pm to welcome this year’s Hall of Fame inductees. The $40 admission includes beefsteak, beer, wine and soda— along with a tasting by Stew Leonards Wines of Clifton—Brookwood will provide the music. Inductees by decade are: 1950’s: Angelo Crudele and Terry LaCorte; 1960’s: Doc Fedor and Jack Marshall; 1970’s: Gary Mekita and Keith Mekita; 1980’s: Sean Gunby and Eddie Robatham; 1990’s: Dawn Morrison and Matt Prawetz; 2000’s: Cal Goodell and Vanessa Matthews. For tickets and details call 973-773-0966.

By Sean Gunby, Sr.

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started going to the Clifton Boys Club in 1974 catching the bus at five years old from Botany Village to the Club on the Passaic Athenia Bus Company. Bus fare was just 40 cents! All the bus drivers knew me. They knew what times to look for me and where to drop me off. I remember Al “A.J.” Abruscato, Bob Lipala, Paul Kuper and Gary Hughes being there every day. My mother was a single parent working 16 hours a day as an RN at the Daughters of Miriam on Hazel Street. She worked so much that I spent more time with Bob Lipala and Paul Kuper at the Boys & Girls Club than I did with my mom, who was working 16 and sometimes 24 hours to make it happen for her and me. I would go after school and stay until 9 pm... be there all day on Saturdays.

The membership fee was about $10 per month in 1974. I participated and competed in all game room activities, and for my peer group I was always a top performer winning trophies for billiard tournaments, ping pong tournaments, air hockey, basketball, indoor soccer and flag football. Whenever the Club would travel to compete against other clubs in NJ in billiards, ping pong, track and field, I was ALWAYS selected to represent my age group. Dominated!

Sean Gunby, Sr., with his son, Sean Gunby, Jr.

When I turned 13 I started going to the Teen Center.

I won $25 in a break dance contest in 1983 at the Teen Center battling other crews from Clifton, Passaic and Paterson. I grew up in Clifton, went to School 12, School 14, Woodrow Wilson Jr. High, and graduated from Clifton High School in 1987. I left New Jersey for Atlanta, GA to go to college at Morris Brown College, where I received my BS Accounting in 1993. I came back in 1994 and completed my MS Finance from New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1997.

I founded and currently run Gunby Consulting Tax Services and Gunby Realty here in town. I currently sit on the Club’s Alumni Committee, which plans and oversees the Annual Alumni Beefsteak. In honor of my mother, my firm annually gives a $500 scholarship to a single mother to help with their child’s membership fee. I would like to give special thanks to Bob Lipala and Paul Kuper for looking out for me and giving their time to the Boys Club.

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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B OY S C LU B Ha l l o f Fa m e Calman Goodell Calman Goodell’s fondest memories as an eight year member of the Boys & Girls Club revolve around the pool, which had been newly renovated at the time that he first started swimming.

“The swim team taught me that hard work pays off, and later, teaching swimming gave me patience.”

Goodell graduated from Clifton High School in 2007. He received a bachelors in Political Science from Coastal Carolina University in 2011, and is currently attending Arizona Culinary Institute.

“I felt part of the Boys & Girls Club family growing up, and still do,” explained Goodell. “Those memories fuel great friendships, and when I return to Clifton I am always excited to stop by the club and catch up and continue to see the growth of the establishment.”

Vanessa Matthews Vanessa Matthews became a member of the Club during elementary school. In addition to learning about relationships and cooperative play with other kids, it was then that she discovered the importance of having supportive communities.

Inspired by the impression the counselors had on her,

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Matthews worked at the Club as a counselor throughout her four years of high school.

“My experiences at the Club transcended its walls and motivated me to pursue tutoring and mentoring high school and college students during my time at Rutgers. I think this speaks to the lasting impact that being a Club member can have on a person – the drive to pay it forward and always support the mission of the Boys & Girls Club.”

Matthews attended Rutgers University, earning a BA in Political Science and Spanish in 2009, and Masters of Public Policy in 2011.

“Now that I’m back home in Clifton, I hope to be able to again contribute my time and efforts to ensuring valuable programs like the Boys & Girls Club continue to thrive in our communities Dawn Morrison Iorio Dawn Morrison Iorio belonged to the Club from 1986 to 1991.

“The Boys & Girls Club had an immense impact on my life,” explained Iorio. “It gave me a safe and fun place to go when my parents were working. I met wonderful friends and positive role models.”

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e g e Calman Goodell, Vanessa Matthews, Dawn Morrison Iorio, Terry Lacorte, Jack Marshall, Gary Mekita, Keith Mekita and Angelo Crudele.

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As a senior in high school, Iorio’s work experience and the guidance of KinderKare’s Director, Ms. A helped her to find her niche: teaching.

Possessing a bachelors degree in education, and a Master’s in early childhood education, Iorio just completed her tenth year as a second grade teacher in Irvington. “I

WEE CARE C HILD CARE CENTER

credit my educational and occupational success to the solid foundation I received at the Boys & Girls Club.

Jack Marshall Currently a District Sales Manager, Millard Wire & Specialty Strip Co., Marshall graduated Montclair State University in 1974.

At the Boys & Girls Club, he is currently the President of NFL Football Club, a position he has held since 1973.

In addition, Marshall has been a “Child Fund” foster parent since 1989, and is also involved with the Progeria Research Foundation, Goodwill Home Missions, Clifton Boys & Girls Club, Clifton PBA. When considering the award, he concluded: “It’s a nice way to honor the Club for the influence it had on myself and friends growing up in Clifton.”

Registration Now Ongoing!

Give Us A Call Today!

Accepting Children from Birth to Age 12 % 0 1 S

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IBLING T

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• Open 7 am to 6 pm • Weekly Chapel • 16 Teachers & Aides — Many here over 20 years!

• After-School Pick-Up at School 5 • When public schools are closed, we’re open!

Jennifer Henkel, Director • First Presbyterian Church 303 Maplewood Avenue, Clifton • 973.523.7704 November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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Election Day November 8 The Clifton Merchant political coverage wraps up this month with the profile of Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver. In October, Assemblyman Thomas Giblin was interviewed, and in September, readers were introduced to the four candidates in the Passaic County Freeholder Race, who can be found on the facing page, along with Surrogate candidates Republican Lawrence Tosi and Democrat Bernice Toledo.

Not all who filed to run in the heavily Democratic leaning district have campaigned.

Republican Assembly candidate Joan Salensky said she will not be campaigning in the race, and runningmate Steve Farrell did not return calls. Ralph Bartnik is listed as the Republican challenger for the 34th District Senate seat, but stated that he will not be campaigning.

Story by Joe Hawrylko what was the partisan politics,” she hough she is slated to run added. “What I’ll point out, the uncontested in this biggest things that we had to deal November’s election, with was addressing issues related Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver still to property taxes. There believes that she will was broad agreement face many challenges in across the aisle that propthe coming months. As erty taxes were too high.”

Assembly Speaker, According to Oliver is at the head of a Assemblywoman Oliver, Democrat majority in disputes arose when prothe house, which, posals from the should the party retain Republicans were too that edge, must find a radical for the way to make comproDemocratic majority, and mise with Republican she was forced to bridge Governor Chris Assemblywoman Sheila Y. Oliver (D) the gap and come to a comChristie. promise, sometimes with“I think the challenge to out the support of her Democratic me as a representative and as a legcolleagues. islative leader has been to strike out Such was the case with the bipara legislative agenda that the tisan effort to reform public employDemocratic majorities could work ee benefits and pensions, which was cooperatively with the Governor,” approved at the end of this summer. she explained. “There were some “Generally legislative leaders broad ideological and philosophical would only seek to put up a bill to differences there.” pass if you’ve got a majority of your “As a legislative leader, I often partisans with you,” she explained. had to prioritize what was, govern“In this case, we’ve got a majority mentally, the right thing to do versus

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of 47 and at the end of the day, only about 10 to 12 of us voted affirmatively for this, so it totally changed the political landscape in the Statehouse. The same thing happened in the Senate House.

President Stephen Sweeny had five to six Democratic senators that voted for it.”

“When we debated this issue, I brought a copy of the New York Times Magazine, from April 2010 I think, and the cover of the magazine said Broke Town, USA,” continued Oliver. “I brought that into the budget meeting to get my members and union leadership to focus on the fact that this isn’t a political issue, Republicans versus Democrats, oh we hate Chris Christie so we won’t cooperate with him. This was about the ability of local governments to manage and get control of costs that are eventually born by taxpayers.”

The bill, which was enacted in October according to Oliver, will create a sliding scale contribution percentage based on income, among many other changes. It is expected

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to save at least $120 billion over the next three decades.

Oliver said that much of the work that was accomplished during her term was to alleviate the burden that municipal governments face during the economic recession. She cited the 2 percent cap on local tax increases, which was enacted two years ago, excludes pension and healthcare tied to public workers, forcing fiscal responsibility upon local Councils.

Oliver also oversaw the interest arbitration legislation, which revamped the way that local governments and unions approach contract negotiations, which were often lengthy, costly and damaging to relations.

“It changed regulations regarding

Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D)

who is qualified. Statewide, we only had a list of 10-12 people who could be arbitrators,” said Oliver, who added that a common complaint by local governments was that the arbitrators were pro-union.

“Arbitrators would drag out the process, and the current contract would stay enforced. The arbitrator was earning more money. It was in their best interest to drag it out three or four years.”

The process was replaced by a rotating wheel in utilizing five arbitrators, with the municipality and the fire/police department unions each picking two arbitrators. In addition, all arbitration cases must now be settled in a 60 day window, and the arbitrator only gets paid one set amount, putting the onus on the

Democratic Assemblyman Thomas Giblin has served the 34th District since 2006, and his office is headquartered at 1333 Broad St., Clifton. Since 2008, he has served as the Deputy majority Leader. He works as a Labor Union Officer for Local 68 Operating Engineers. Giblin was profiled in the Oct. Clifton Merchant.

arbitrator to bring about a swift resolution.

“Whatever they did, six days or 60 days, they’d only get paid one amount of money,” said Oliver, adding that the bill was passed last spring.

On the horizon, Oliver, who is also campaigning for a second Assembly Speaker term, said she views fiscal responsibility, property taxes and education as prominent issues going into her next term.

“I try to remind our constituents everywhere that we are living during a period of unprecedented economic recession,” said Oliver. “It’s important to understand that the problems we are to confront are not just in Clifton or Montclair... we can’t point to just one thing.”

Democratic Senator Nia H. Gill has served from 2001, and has been Senate President Pro Tempore since Jan. 2010. She is also the Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, and is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee—the first African American and woman to do so in the history of the committee.

Senator Nia Gill (D)

The Democratic team includes incumbent Freeholder Bruce James, Freeholder candidate TJ Best and Surrogate candidate Bernice Toledo. Republicans Freeholder candidates are Bob Ceberio and Frank Fusco with Lawrence Tosi running for Surrogate.

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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BUSINESS and COMMERCE

At 65, Reinventing Her Business

By Carol Leonard

B

y the time most people reach age 65, they are ready to wind down their careers and begin a new life of leisure in retirement. Not so for Lynne Ascoli-Shaw. In fact, the spunky long-time educator and director of The New Bairn School recently took on a challenge that has kept her busier than ever.

In August, The New Bairn School, which provides programs for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners, moved to new facilities at 66 Mount Prospect Ave. It was the second change of location within six years for the school, which Ascoli-Shaw co-founded 38 years ago.

The mother of three and grandmother of three grew up in Clifton and went on to attend what was then Montclair State College (now Montclair State University). She married young and by her mid-20s was caring for two young girls.

“My kids were going to preschool at Collegiate School in Passaic and I was looking for something to do, so I started working there part-time,” she said. Ascoli-Shaw became friendly with fellow Collegiate School staff member Hortense Jacobs and the two began discussing the idea of starting their own preschool.

But with no finances or space to carry out the plan on their 70

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

Lynne Ascoli-Shaw with some students at The (new) New Bairn School.

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own, Jacobs reached out to one of the priests with whom she was friendly at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Lafayette Ave. in Passaic Park. The church agreed to sponsor the school for a small monthly fee.

Ascoli-Shaw and Jacobs rented some classrooms at the nearby Temple Emanuel and they named their school The Macadie Bairn School. Donald Macadie was the bishop for the Newark Episcopalian diocese and bairn means wee one in Scottish. “The church needed us to have something in the name to connect then to the school,” Ascoli-Shaw explained. She and Jacobs later changed the name to The New Bairn School when they decided to operate the school on their own.

The school started out as a traditional nursery school program for about 30 three- and four-year-olds. There was no before- or after-care program and they closed for the summer.

Ascoli-Shaw and Jacobs eventually hired more staff and expanded their school to include a toddler program, full-day kindergarten and infant daycare. They later opened a school for grades one through eight, which was housed in classroom space that they leased at the former Temple Beth Shalom on Passaic Ave. in Clifton. They operated the elementary school for about 15 years before

closing it in the mid-1990s to focus exclusively on their programs for infants and young children. When Jacobs decided to retire in 1998, Ascoli-Shaw stayed on as the school’s director.

Over the years the Jewish population in Passaic has changed to mostly Orthodox worshipers, a sect of whom purchased Temple Emanuel about six years ago. At that point, Ascoli-Shaw moved the school to the PassaicClifton YM-YWHA building on Scoles Ave., where she rented a group of classrooms. “It was a wonderful arrangement, she said. “We had plenty of space and access to a large playground area outside.”

Then, last fall, the administration at the Y announced that they would be closing the facility and selling the building. At age 64 Ascoli-Shaw was faced with the decision to either close the school or find a new location.

“As I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine not doing this,” she said. “So much of my life has been centered on running this school. So I started looking around and I found this building. Believe me, it was a dump, but visually I could see what it could become, so I took the plunge. It was a big undertaking. I had to get an architect and get involved in issues that I never had to worry about before.”

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BUSINESS and COMMERCE The owner agreed to pay for the renovations to turn the longtime vacant building into a school and offered Ascoli-Shaw an acceptable rental arrangement. “If I was 20 years younger, I would have bought it,” she said, “but I decided on a 10-year lease. I figured that would give me a long enough time to do what I want with it. By then I’ll be 75 and maybe I’ll be ready to give it up and retire.”

Ascoli-Shaw dipped into her personal finances to add other improvements, including cleaning up and fencing in a 7,000 square-foot grassy area on the side of the building for an outdoor playground for the children.

She felt comfortable investing in the school and is confident she will be able to pay herself back because, in spite of the state of the economy, the business is doing quite well. “We’re packed with kids,” she said. “I don’t have room for any more.”

The New Bairn School’s enrollment has grown to 140 children, ranging in age from newborn to six years old.

There is currently a waiting list of 30 and, since moving into the new location, Ascoli-Shaw has had to turn away about 50 families wanting to enroll their kids.

The staff includes 19 full-time and five part-time teachers and child-care aides, most of whom have been with the school for at least 10 years. She is quick to credit her employees with the success. “I have the best staff in the world and I’m very fortunate to have them. Not only are they great teachers and caregivers, but they’re loyal and committed and have a wonderful work ethic.”

Ascoli-Shaw describes her philosophy as a very basic, with an emphasis on developing children’s imagination and creativity as well as their independence, self-esteem and respect for themselves and others. “I want them to leave here holding their heads up high,” she said. “I want them to be positive and social and be able to look you in the eyes when they speak.”

If you walk around the bright, freshly painted classrooms, you will see lots of toy cars, trucks and fire engines, building blocks, picture books, flash cards and other learning aides. What you won’t see are a lot of computers and technology. In fact, the kindergarten classroom has two computers, which are only used periodically for educational games and are not connected to the internet.

“I feel like we’ve gone over the edge with technology,” Ascoli-Shaw said. “Kids have lost the sense of what it feels like to hold a real book. I’m very hands-on with everything. I even still hand-write every note that goes home.”

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Ascoli-Shaw said that she always emphasizes to the parents of new students that the school is not just a glorified babysitting service. “We’re all about teaching the children,” she said.

Beginning with the toddler groups, children at The New Bairn School are taught how to count, recognize numbers, letters, colors and shapes. Preschoolers and kindergartners cover reading skills using a phonetics approach as well as addition and subtraction, how to count money and tell time, and writing skills. “They write every day,” she said. “They cut and paste and do a lot of fun stuff and we use a lot of music and nursery rhymes.

They learn a great deal, but there’s no pressure. If they don’t learn it today, they’ll learn it tomorrow.”

The children also listen to CDs, which Ascoli-Shaw feels is a valuable tool. “Kids today are so visually oriented that they don’t know how to listen anymore,” she said.

“They need to learn to listen.”

Teaching kids communication skills is very important to Ascoli-Shaw. “It’s about 90 percent of what we do,” she said. “We discuss a lot, we talk a lot. In fact, we talk, talk, talk with them. I think this is important for their social skills and emotional stability.”

Under the terms of her lease, Ascoli-Shaw is responsible for paying her own utility bills and for making arrangements for cleaning and maintenance of the building and outside areas. She will also have to arrange for snow removal from the parking lots and walkways during the winter. “These are things I never had to think about before,” she said. “I even have to buy my own paper towels and other supplies.”

Despite the new administrative tasks that keep her at her desk more of the day than she would like, AscoliShaw still makes her rounds to every classroom everyday to visit with the children and staff. “That’s what keeps me going,” she said.

The New Bairn School is open 7 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday, so it’s a long workweek for Ascoli-Shaw.

But even on the weekends, you can often find her there catching up on laundering the sheets and blankets used in the infant and toddler rooms or cleaning up the parking lot. Her husband, Howard Shaw, a retired police detective turned insurance fraud investigator, who has been a backbone of support for her, often comes along to lend a hand.

When not at the school, Ascoli-Shaw enjoys traveling and antiquing with her husband, and spending time with her children and grandchildren.

Students and instructors of Dover Business College, a nationally-accredited private college on Getty Ave. that prepares students for careers in healthcare and business technology, at the Downtown Clifton street fair.

Downtown Clifton’s Street Fair on Oct. 22 was a success as Main Ave. was lined with local merchants and vendors selling wares and food. Visitors strolled the district, shopping, dining and meeting old friends. There were rides for the kids, including a petting zoo, and Brookwood performed sets through the day.

Other upcoming events in the district include a Dec. 3 visit from Santa. For more info call 973-253-1455 or go to www.downtownclifton.com.

Downtown Clifton Board director Patrick DeLora of DeLuxe Cleaners, Angela Montague, Executive Director of Downtown Clifton Economic Development Group, Inc. (DCEDG) with Mike and Pete Cetinich of the band Brookwood, which performed at the Oct. 22 street fair.

Always Farm Fresh, For Your Thanksgiving Holiday Cabbage Cauliflower Flat Red Onions Potatoes • Peppers

Paterson Farmers Market 449 East Railway Ave., Paterson 10 Retail Stores Daily: 7am-8pm 973-742-1019

Seasonal Fruit Squash & much more!

www.patersonfarmersmarket.com November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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BUSINESS and COMMERCE Hot Grill owners Carmen LaMendola and Domenick Sportelli marked the 50th anniversary of their landmark eatery on Oct. 8 and 9 with fireworks, giveaways, twofers and contributions.

Opened on Oct. 13, 1961—“it was Friday the 13th,” Sportelli recalled of that day five decades ago, when the Lexington Ave. diner was just a dusty roadside stand with a few stools. “People thought we were crazy but we became a New Jersey icon, home to the best Hot Texas wieners.”

Since 1961, the Hot Grill has fed generations of Cliftonites, serving 4,000 or more Hot Texas Wieners on a Saturday and as much as 100 gallons of sauce. The owners have remodeled twice—once in 1967, adding booths and stools for 60 and a more recent expansion which can seat over 150 people.

“Our staff and service are excellent. That means your food is served hot and fresh,” Sportelli con-

cluded. “When you come to Hot Grill, expect everything to be the same.”

Hot Grill owners Carmen LaMendola and Domenick Sportelli presented Bob Foster of the Boys & Girls Club with a donation to mark the 50th anniversary of their landmark eatery on Oct. 8 and 9.

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

Providing quality care for over 80 years

The North Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce hosts its sixth annual Star Award gala on Dec. 8 at the Westmount Country Club, Woodland Park.

Former Clifton City Manager Al Greco and Ron Olszowy, President of Nationwide Bail Bonds, will be honored. The Star Award is designed to recognize companies and individuals who demonstrate outstanding leadership in their activities, and provide significant support to the Chamber of Commerce, the area’s major advocacy group for business. Proceeds from the Gala and accompanying Tribute Journal assist in NJRCC programs in North Jersey.

For ticket info or to place an ad in the journal, call Gloria Martini of the North Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce at 973-470-9300, or visit www.njrcc.org.

Investment firm Edward Jones has opened its second Clifton location in the Promenade Shops on Route 3. At the Oct. 25 reception, from left, Pasquale Pisani, Financial Advisor of the new branch with his Administrator Karen Pascucci; Tom Feely, Regional Leader of Edward Jones; Mayor James Anzaldi; Cy Yannarelli, Financial Advisor for the original Broad St. branch with his Administrator Angela Coble.

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CLIFTON Events The O’Neil family and the Clifton FMBA will make sure that the 16th Annual Thanksgiving Day feast goes off without a hitch.

Working with FMBA Local 21 members and Clifton Firefighters, the Route 3 IHOP and F and B Catering, they will offer a free Thanksgiving Day dinner to residents who will be alone, or who might not be able to afford one at all.

This annual feast, started by former Deputy Chief Tom Lyons in 1994, begins at 11:30 am on Nov. 24 at the Senior Citizen Center, behind City Hall at 900 Clifton Ave. Seating is limited to the first 150 residents who respond before Nov. 21. For details, call Ann Marie Lancaster at 973-470-5802.

Chip O’Neil of IHOP, with his son Kevin, and Clifton Firefighter Tony Latona.

Carrying the names of 115 survivors and 75 who have lost the battle to breast cancer, Janet Mozolewski and her team Loretta’s Ladies raised $11,090 for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer on Oct. 20. Back row: Phyllis Williams, Karen Lazar, Rosemary Del Villar, Frankie Nigro, Jilana Dellal, Sharell Thomas, Betsy Klos, Patricia Johnson, Barbara Swoboda, Dana Karp, Wendy Montano. Front row and sitting: Karen Rosenzweig, Stephanie Spitz, Sharon Rizzo, Janet Mozolewski, Lynn Douglass, Ryan Mozolewski with Ilene Nosel in front. Missing are Lynn France and Ginny Lotaro.

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St. Brendan Catholic School hosts its 13th annual Grocery Auction on Nov. 13 in the school auditorium on Lakeview Ave. Doors open at noon, auction begins at 1pm. Tickets are $10 and the kitchen will be open for lunch. Call 973-772-1149 for tickets or info. Lots of prizes including a supermarket sweep.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee honored Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. on Oct. 16 by awarding him the prestigious and coveted Hrushevsky Award for his efforts in promoting US-Ukraine relations, and particularly for his role in helping Ukraine to achieve and sustain its independence.

St. Paul Church Leisure Club meets the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at 1 pm in the church hall at at Second and Union aves. Anyone 55+ is welcome to join, including non-parishioners. Trips include: Nov. 16 Camp Hope, Nov. 29 Hunterdon Hills Playhouse and others. Call 973-546-7690 for info.

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M U S TA N G R e u n i o n s

CHS Class of 1961 members strolled down memory lane on Oct. 14 for its 50th reunion with 156 classmates, four teachers and many spouses. They reminisced about those Mustangs years and visited Christopher Columbus Middle School, which was Clifton High School back then and where this photo was taken.

CHS Class of 1966 hosts its 45th reunion Nov. 18-20.

There is a Friday night social and a Saturday evening dinner dance at—note location change—the Hamilton Park Hotel and Conference Center in Florham Park.

Price is $66. For info, go to Facebook (Clifton HS Class of 66) or call organizers Nancy Maurer Muddell (201723-0402) or Jackie Sussman Schein (201-303-7033).

CHS Classes of ‘71-74 host a joint reunion on Nov. 4 at the Parsippany Hilton from 7 pm to midnight.

Tickets are $99 and include cocktail hour, buffet dinner and desert, four hour open bar and DJ. For last minute details and other information on the multi year event, go to www.reunions-unlimited.com.

CHS Class of ‘01’s 10 year reunion is from 7 to 11 pm on Nov. 26 at the Park Ridge Marriott. Ticket are $65 for the first 100 people; $70 for those who register after.

For details, visit www.chs2001.rsvpbook.com.

CHS Class of 1979 is having a reunion on Nov. 26 at The Grande Saloon (downstairs), 940 Van Houten Ave. Hot and cold buffet and cash bar starts at 7 pm. Tickets are $32 if paid by Nov. 1, $35 after. Make checks payable to: CHS Class of 79, and mail to 28 Urma Ave., Clifton, NJ 07011. Organizers include Linda Haraka DiFalco, Debra Hatem Gorney, Susan Kral, Rosemary Trinkle Baran. For info call 973-779-4611.

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November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

Kayla Whiting of Clifton (at left) and Talia Maldonado have been selected to perform as an opening act for seven-time Grammy awardwinner Gladys Knight at the Boys & Girls Clubs in New Jersey’s 9th Annual Concert for Kids, a state wide fundraiser for the Club, which raised more than $300,000 last year. Whiting, who will perform on Nov. 9 at the NJPAC, has been a member of the Clifton B&GC for more than three years, and her cited Adele as her favorite performer.

Cliftonite Frankie Salensky, a member of the TSF Academy U13 Boys ‘X’ team and Clifton Stallions, participated in US Club Soccer’s id2 Program Training on Oct. 13 to 16. The event provides an opportunity for elite youth soccer players to be identified, developed or scouted for inclusion in US Soccer’s National Team.

Paramus Catholic students will spend 28 hours living as the homeless do on their campus on Nov. 6 and 7. They will create shelters of cardboard boxes and tarps and sleep there, regardless of the weather, eat modest meals served soup-kitchen style and wake up and attend school Monday morning, sharing what they’ve learned with their classmates. Tent City kicks off PC’s Thanksgiving Food Drive, which runs until Nov. 21. Members of the community are invited to participate by dropping off non-perishable food items at the school. For more info, or to help out, contact Joseph Wilson, Dean of Campus Ministry at 973-652-6002 or jwilson@paramus-catholic.org.

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C L I F T O N Tr a d i t i o n s

The Optimist Clubs of Clifton & Passaic present...

HOT DOG NIGHT

Captains of the Clifton and Passaic Football Teams - first row from left: Mark Gardinet, Chris Rogers, Juan Hoyos, Patrick Ferrara, William Lugo. Top row: Tim Brown, Ryan Hariton, Shaheem Curry, Mo Ramadan.

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Bringing Out the Best in Kids is the mission and vision of the Optimist Clubs of Passaic and Clifton.

That’s why before the annual Optimist Cup Thanksgiving Game between the Indians and Mustangs—this year at Clifton Stadium—we sponsor a Hot Dog Night. Held on Thurs., Nov. 17 at 6:30 pm— this year at the Athenia Veterans Hall on Huron Ave.— the event celebrates the tradition of an 82-game rivalry between the two high schools, which spans 87 years.

And it’s just not the gridiron rivalry being celebrated that night—it is the football experience. Both squads of cheerleaders and members of both marching bands will attend. A tradition for over the past decade, all kids eat for free and that’s why Optimist Club members seek the community’s support.

The public is invited—tickets are $10—and we ask parents, community leaders and adults to purchase tickets, even if you can’t attend. Remember we need to feed some 200 kids who we don’t charge—so your donation would be appreciated. At the hot dog dinner, a student athlete from each team will speak about their

experience on and off the field and what the rivalry means to them and their teammates. As Optimists, we hope that the Hot Dog Night makes the world a little gentler, as kids from the two towns get to know each other as competitors and neighbors.

For tickets, contact Clifton Merchant Magazine editor and publisher Tom Hawrylko at 973-253-4400, Ted Munley at Clifton Savings Bank at 973-473-2200, ext.

112 or Passaic HS VP John Ciuppa at 973-470-5602.

772-8451

973Roofing • Siding Seamless Gutters Additions • Alterations November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

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HOT DOG NIGHT Passaic vs. Clifton 1923 1923 . . .Clifton 12 ......Passaic 7 1924 . . .Passaic 23 ......Clifton 0 1925 . . .Passaic 21 ......Clifton 6 1926 . . .Passaic 21 ......Clifton 6 1927 . . .Passaic 13 ......Clifton 0 1928 . . .Passaic 24 ......Clifton 0 1929 . . .Passaic 24 ......Clifton 0 1930 . . .Passaic 26 ......Clifton 0 1931 . . .Passaic 7 ........Clifton 0 1932 . . .Passaic 26 ......Clifton 7 1933 . . .Clifton 7 ........Passaic 6 1934 . . .Passaic 26 ......Clifton 0 1935 . . .Passaic 6 ........Clifton 0 1936 . . .Passaic 34 ....Clifton 14 1937 . . .Passaic 6 ........Clifton 0 1938 . . .Passaic 19 ......Clifton 6 1939 . . .Passaic 31 ......Clifton 6 1940 . . .Passaic 13 ......Clifton 6 1941 . . .Passaic 0 ........Clifton 0 1942 . . .Passaic 19 ......Clifton 0 1943 . . .Clifton 12 ......Passaic 6 1944 . . .Clifton 26 ......Passaic 6 1945 . . .Clifton 6 ........Passaic 0 1946 . . .Clifton 26 ....Passaic 14 1947 . . .Clifton 32 ......Passaic 0 1948 . . .Clifton 7 ........Passaic 7 1949 . . .Clifton 12 ......Passaic 0 1950 . . .Passaic 20 ......Clifton 7 1951 . . .Clifton 26 ......Passaic 6 1952 . . .Clifton 33 ....Passaic 12

2010

INDIANS MUSTANGS 35 Wins 42 Loses 5 Ties

42 Wins 35 Loses 5 Ties

1953 . . .Clifton 21 ....Passaic 20 1954 . . .Passaic 7 ........Clifton 6 1955 . . .Passaic 7 ........Clifton 0 1956 . . .Clifton 48 ......Passaic 0 1958 . . .Clifton 40 ......Passaic 7 1959 . . .Clifton 41 ....Passaic 21 1960 . . .Clifton 28 ......Passaic 6 1961 . . .Clifton 35 ......Passaic 7 1962 . . .Clifton 31 ......Passaic 6 1963 . . .Clifton 50 ......Passaic 0 1964 . . .Passaic 27 ......Clifton 0 1965 . . .Clifton 15 ....Passaic 13 1966 . . .Clifton 7 ........Passaic 0 1967 . . .Passaic 7 ........Clifton 7 1968 . . .Clifton 27 ....Passaic 10 1969 . . .Clifton 40 ......Passaic 0 1970 . . .Clifton 49 ......Passaic 0 1971 . . .Clifton 20 ....Passaic 12 1972 . . .Clifton 35 ......Passaic 6 1973 . . .Clifton 75 ....Passaic 12 1974 . . .Clifton 47 ......Passaic 6 1976 . . .Clifton 28 ......Passaic 6

Happy Thanksgiving Best Wishes to Both Teams... Enjoy the Holiday!

Passaic County Clerk

Kristin Corrado 82

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1981 . . .Passaic 20 ......Clifton 3 1982 . . .Passaic 33 ......Clifton 0 1983 . . .Passaic 20 ......Clifton 7 1984 . .Clifton 16 ......Passaic 0 1985 . .Passaic 28 ......Clifton 7 1986 . .Passaic 21 ......Clifton 8 1987 . . .Clifton 24 ....Passaic 13 1988 . . .Clifton 22 ....Passaic 22 1989 . . .Passaic 22 ......Clifton 0 1990 . . .Passaic 14 ......Clifton 7 1991 . . .Passaic 33 ....Clifton 16 1992 . . .Passaic 13 ....Clifton 10 1993 . . .Passaic 0 ........Clifton 0 1994 . . .Passaic 12 ......Clifton 7 1995 . . .Passaic 21 ......Clifton 7 1996 . . .Clifton 23 ......Passaic 6 1997 . . .Passaic 22 ....Clifton 20 1998 . . .Passaic 25 ......Clifton 0 1999 . . .Passaic 20 ......Clifton 7 2000 . . .Clifton 21 ....Passaic 14 2001 . . .Clifton 20 ....Passaic 19 2002 . . .Clifton 19 ....Passaic 14 2003 . . .Clifton 17 ......Passaic 0 2004 . . .Clifton 48 ......Passaic 0 2005 . . .Clifton 7 ........Passaic 6 2006 . . .Clifton 14 ....Passaic 12 2007 . . .Clifton 18 ....Passaic 13 2008 . . .Clifton 28 ......Passaic 0 2009 . . .Clifton 7.........Passaic 0 2010 . . .Clifton 42.......Passaic 0

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M U S TA N G T h e a t e r

The Complete and Unabridged Works of William Shakespeare Imagine a cross of any play by the wordsmith William Shakespeare with the TV show Saturday Night Live and the movie Airplane! Now mix in performances by a bunch of Robin Williams-type people (seen on these pages) and you’ll get an idea of what the Fall CHS production is about.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare was created in the late 1980’s— and then changed, addedto, perfected over the years by the original authors. Although written

paid for by Committee to Elect Sheila Oliver

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for three actors (and performed that way), Director David Arts has taken scripts and did a bit of editing to accommodate 19 thespians. Performances are Nov. 18, 19 and 20. For tickets and info, call 973-470-2312.

Other involved with the show include set designer Julie Chrobak with help from Ken Kida and the Stage Craft Club.

At left: Stephen Paige, Kenneth Fowler, Gregory Gwyn, Adam Madrigal, Bhavin Shah.

At right: Gabrielle Cabacab, Juhi Desai, Cassandra Lee, Rachel Gutierrez, Gabriella Cabacab, Allison Green, Jennie Sekanics.

Below: Shannon Norman, Ishani Desai, Sindy De La Cruz, Christina Lazcano, Ileana Ramos, Mariel Vasquez (missing Kira Abrams).

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M U S T A N G Tr a d i t i o n s

CLIFTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT OF THE MONTH

By Joe Hawrylko It’s an old cliche that sports give an individual the discipline to succeed in life. But according to CHS senior Ryan Dziuba, the adage is 100 percent true.

“I only started to run freshman year and I feel in love with it ever since,” said “It’s something I’m not naturally good at. I feel the bigger obstacle, the more glory in overcoming.

That’s a Pontes quote—my head is full of them. He loves the sport more than anyone I’ve ever met.”

Dziuba, the CHS Student of the Month, said that longtime track coach John Pontes has been one of the most influential individuals in his life to date, helping shape his own views on life, infusing him with the motivation and discipline to tackle any challenge.

“He takes really anyone on th team, never cutting anyone. But he can turn them into a runner, even if you’re not winning County Championships or anything,” added Dziuba. “It’s more about the mentality. After running cross country and track for four years, I like to apply that philosophy to my life. If I can run six miles, I can do my best in AP courses.”

In addition to being a four year runner in all three track seasons, Dziuba is a stellar academic, on track to make his fourth year of Distinguished Honor Roll. To qualify, students must have a 90 or 86

November 2011 • Clifton Merchant

Ryan Dziuba is the October Student of the Month.

better average, with no grade under an 85. Dziuba accomplished this with a bevy of honors courses, including AP English and French this year.

“Mrs. Cinque (Graff), she makes the language interesting,” he said.

“And my sister told me to take AP English, saying what a wonderful teacher Dr. Greenwald was. It’s a lot of work, but her attitude makes you want to work hard. She’ll remember a random line from a student’s essay that she liked.”

Dziuba feels that AP English will help prepare him for college course load. He plans on attending Seton Hall’s seven year physical

therapy doctorate program, since he qualifies for a tuition match equal to that of neighboring Rutgers Newark.

“I tore my IT band in my hip sophomore year,” he said. “I couldn’t do a thing and I love that they (physical therapists) got me back.”

Dziuba currently has an internship with the Athletic Trainers Club, where he’s learned from Trainer Tom Cutalo.

His experiences working with athletic peers in CHS makes him believe that his future is in physical therapy. “As an athlete, you can relate,” said Dziuba. “I think I can work with anyone.

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Martin Huerta and Gabriella Cruz presided over 2011 Homecoming on Oct. 14. The court included Kaitlyn Amoruso, Robert Bodnar, Elizabeth Arias, Ivan Bushka, Emilia Mrozek, Mario Conte, Kelly Rodriguez and Ryan White. However, the game was spoiled by injuries and an opportunistic Fair Lawn squad that defeated the Mustangs, 13-12. Four year starter Patrick Ferrara was lost after breaking his ankle on a sack early on in the game. Not long after, Clifton was without the services of premier runningback Dondre McClain after he suffered a shoulder injury and did not return. Backup quarterback Jimmy Sonzogni filled in admirably, scoring two touchdowns, but ultimately the Mustangs came up short in the closing seconds of the fourth.

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TRUE Crime

Lakeview Murderer

The True Story of Clifton’s Serial Killer and His Mother

By Tom Hawrylko

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omen fell hard for Eric Napoletano—and some of them never got up. But the woman he loved best was the only one willing to conceal his horrifying secrets from a suspicious world–his mother, Carolyn. Sandy-haired and wiry at six feet tall, Napoletano, shown here, seemed to attract tragedy. In 1984 his fifteen-year-old girlfriend was found dumped in Pennsylvania with her throat slashed. In 1985 his mother-in-law was shot dead on a Bronx street corner. And in 1990 his second wife, missing from their Clifton home, was discovered crudely buried in Delaware.

Big city cops and prosecutors agreed something had to be done about Eric Napoletano but it took the smart work of Clifton cops to stop him.

By early July, newspapers serving Clifton swarmed all over this true crime drama, which had its origins at the Napoletano apartment at 25 East Sixth St., in the Lakeview section.

A rising mound of evidence pointed to young Napoletano, a streetwise auxiliary policeman, bigamist, and adulterer.

To FBI profilers, he behaved like a sexually sadistic serial killer, undergoing sudden, dangerous mood shifts and imprisoning his victims in downward spirals of abuse.

When the women inevitably rejected him, Napoletano reacted with the ultimate retribution.

For years Napoletano eluded arrest, and he had his mother to thank most for his freedom.

Carolyn Napoletano, a civilian employee of the New York Police Department who routinely had access to confidential documents, didn’t hesitate to coach a witness to lie, interfere with evidence, or supply her son with the alibis he needed.

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The perverse relationship between Eric and Carolyn led Clifton author Richard T. Pienciak to come up with the title of his third novel, Mama’s Boy, which was published by Penguin Books in 1996.

Carolyn’s lifelong love-hate relationship with her only child helped twist Eric’s relationships with other women and contributed greatly to the development of his homicidal personality.

Punctuated with chilling statements that Carolyn Napoletano made to Pienciak, Mama’s Boy: The True Story of a Serial Killer and His Mother reveals the inside story of the FBI task force that traced Eric from Clifton to New Mexico with the aid of the first federal wiretap ever used in a serial killer case.

Now available in paperback, this compelling book tells the probing, shattering story of a singularly cold-

Carolyn Napoletano holds grandson Angelo while Eric sits with Eric Jr. on the bench at Styertowne Shopping Center after police seized Eric’s car in 1990.

blooded murderer, of a woman with a mother’s protective instinct at its most perverse.

In recalling the book, Pienciak, who lives in the Albion section of Clifton, points to a flawed criminal

justice system that, even after the killer’s capture and conviction, still spared him and his accomplices the full consequences of their crimes.

And while the two previous murders that Eric had committed

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TRUE Crime attracted scant attention, the circumstances as well as many names of Clifton police revolving around the disappearance of officers just recently retired and those still Eric’s wife Myra had caught the interest of on the job. And there are other interesting Clifton cops and specifically that of a young twists with Clifton origins as well. police detective, Nick Donato. It was a For his legal defense Eric Napoletano challenge that the big city cops and proseneeded a pool attorney, which is a private cutors failed to meet. counsel assigned to a poor defendant, who, In the book, Pienciak wrote that Donato for whatever reason, cannot be represented knew that if Eric Napoletano was not by the public defenders office. But there stopped, he would surely fall in love again. was a problem with the usual solution.

And if Eric fell in love again, another The New Jersey Legislature, the county woman would die. governments and the State Supreme Court The disappearance of Eric’s wife Myra had become embroiled in a catfight over Acevedo became Clifton’s Central financing of the public defender’s system.

Rick Pienciak.

Complaint No. 90-9260. Mamma’s Boy With funding for pool attorneys temporarifollows the investigation from Clifton to ly in limbo, there was no mechanism for New Mexico and back for Eric’s sentencing at the Passaic Eric to be assigned pool counsel.

County Courthouse.

To keep the case against Eric on track, the Passaic Thanks to the work of Donato and others at the Clifton County assignment judge, Sidney H. Reiss, turned to Police Department, Eric was arrested by the FBI in Ernest M. Caposela, a certified criminal trial attorney who Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 27, 1991. He evenover the years had handled hundreds of criminal defenses, tually was brought back to Passaic County with a trial to murder trials and court assigned pool cases. Caposela, a begin in April, 1993. Throughout Mama’s Boy there are Clifton resident, had his office on Lakeview Ave., just a many other references to Clifton locations and landmarks, few blocks from the Napoletano apartment.

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The key investigators from left: Clifton Police Dept. Lt. John Burke, FBI Special Agent Thomas A. Cottone, Jr., Clifton Police Dept. Det. Nick Donato, and Senior Investigator Peter T. Talarico, Jr. of the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.

After the trial, Caposela received a letter of thanks from the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Robert Wilentz, which stated: “Your willingness to undertake such representation without any assurance of eventual compensation speaks well for the profession and its dedication to the system of justice.” Today, Caposela is a Passaic County Superior Court Judge.

On June 25, 1993, Eric Napoletano was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 30 years.

Despite Carolyn Napoletano’s implication with various crimes, she was at first able to return to her job at the NYPD. Pienciak noted that the tape recorded conversation he had with Carolyn which played an integral part of the book was eventually used to get her fired from the NYPD. “That’s one of my greatest accomplishments,” said Pienciak. “We finally got Carolyn out of the police department.”

In mid-1997, Pienciak returned as a writer for the Sunday New York Daily News and in December, 1998, he was named the paper’s metropolitan editor, where he directs all suburban coverage for the paper, managing some 70 editors and reporters. Over his career, he’s also been a national correspondent for the Associated Press and an investigative reporter for the New York Daily News.

When looking back at the Napoletano case, Pienciak called the Clifton police the real heroes. “They stopped these people when no one else cared,” said Pienciak.

Next month, we’ll tell the story of how Clifton Detectives Tim Kaminski and Joel Smith have worked the still unresolved July 2009 case of the so-called Miracle Baby.

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CLIFTON Arts

Larissa Diduch, Marianna Hoholuk, Natalie Czuczak, Anna Diduch, Mila Kotys, Christina Kedl are organizing a Christmas Bazaar at the Ukrainian Center at 240 Hope Ave. in Passaic on Dec 11, from 9:30 am – 5 pm.

The Ukrainian Center Christmas Bazaar on Dec. 11 at 240 Hope Ave., Passaic, will feature nearly 20 vendors selling traditional and contemporary gifts, collectibles, Ukrainian-themed items, sterling silver jewelry, costume jewelry, toys, personalized clothing from babies to adults, skin care, make-up, pottery and music CDs. From 9:30 am to 5 pm, there will be live holiday music, traditional Eastern European food along with imported beers and wines and a visit with St. Nicholas. Free admission; for vendor information or for more details contact Marianna Hoholuk: mhoholuk@optonline.net.

Enter the City of Clifton’s Holiday Door Decorating Contest by entering before Dec. 2. Call 973- 470-5956 to register as judging will begin Dec. 5 and continue through that week. Judges cannot return to see the doors if they have not be completed on time. Winners will be contacted by phone. Participants receive a small gift for entering. The grand prize will go to the “Best in Town” title. Ten additional winners will be selected for Most Creative, Best Craftsmanship, Most Original, Most Colorful, Most Unusual, Best International/ Patriotic Theme, Best Theme, Best Children’s Theme and Best Old Fashioned Christmas/Winter Theme.

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The Clifton Jewish Center at 18 Delaware St. (near Burger King) hosts an Arts and Craft Show on Dec. 4 from 9 am to 5 pm. Vendors will be offering jewelry, wood working, crocheted items, doll clothing and furniture, checkbook covers, Judaica, yarn items, table linens, handmade wallets... making it a perfect place to shop for holiday gifts. Vendors spaces still available.

For information, call 973-772-3131.

The NJ Carpatho-Rusyn Society hosts a Heritage Celebration Dinner on Nov. 6, from 1 to 5 pm at the First National Russian Hall, 4 Woodhull Ave., Little Falls. There will be ethnic foods served family-style and entertainment by Odarka Polanskyj Stockert playing Eastern European music on a folk harp. The ‘John Mihalasky Humanitarian Award’ will be presented to Joyce C. Barr, former president of the New Jersey Chapter, for her leadership and effort to present programs of cultural and historical interest. Following dinner, John Righetti will speak on the topic ‘Keeping Rusyn Culture Alive: Where We’ve Been and Where We Still Need to Go.’ For fees and info, contact Dorothy Bognar at 201-891-4151, e-mail her at dpbognar@gmail.com or go to www.c-rs.org.

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CLIFTON Arts Blue State Productions, in residence at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Clifton, is staging For Colored Girls on Nov. 5-19. The production is a series of 20 poems, referred collectively as a choreopoem, performed by a cast of nameless women, each known only by a color. Blue State is also coordinating for its World AIDs Day production, OneWorld, One Hope: A Remembrance, for a midNovember to Dec. 3 run. More info at BlueStateProd@aol.com or call 973-607-1924.

The Practice of Art: Physicians as Artists opens at the Clifton Arts Center on Nov. 9. The exhibit will showcase doctors using different mediums to create original art and will be displayed until Dec. 17. A reception open to the public is on Nov. 12, from 1 to 4 pm. Admission to show and reception is $3. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 1 to 4 pm with group tours available by appointment. Clifton Arts Center & Sculpture Park is at 900 Clifton Ave. Info at:www.cliftonnj.org.

Clifton Merchant Magazine • Volume 15 • Issue 12 • December 3, 2010

ve. wA evie g Lak hoppin S

owne Styert g Center in Shopp The Pro me Shops nade

Free, Please Take One

Downtown Clifton

Richfie Shopping ld Plaza Historic Botany District

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Clifton Commons

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ATC Studios in Clifton has launched ‘The Way It Is’, a competition open to middle and high schoolers. Students are encouraged to write short one-act plays which may be submitted individually or through their literary arts and/or drama programs, that reflect the way they see the world. Submissions will be accepted through March 15.

Teachers and theatre professionals will evaluate the submissions, and six to twelve selected pieces will receive a production at ATC in 2012.

Through audience votes and professional evaluation, the top three pieces will be taped and posted to the internet for worldwide exposure.

Students may submit their short one-acts, for 2-10 actors, with simple tech requirements to atcstudios3@gmail.com. Include name, contact information, age, grade and school (home-schooled students may also submit). Submissions should be in pdf or doc format.

Teachers wishing to participate in the submission or evaluation process should contact ATC. The Hamilton House Museum in Clifton will offer a Candlelight Tour on Dec. 2 at 7 pm. Coordinated by Fordham University History Professor Dr. Jack Houston, visitors will hear of traditions from the Civil War era, be entertained by the Clifton High School Madrigals and enjoy the museum’s Civil War period decorations. Admission is $3, which includes holiday goodies.

The Hamilton House is at 971 Valley Rd. The Museum is open for tours on Sundays from 2 to 4 pm.

Tours at other times may be made by calling 973-744-5707.

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Joe Angello is 52 on Nov. 6 while Joe & Sue celebrate their 12th anniversary Nov. 14. Carolina Kazer is 94 on Nov. 29, pictured with her son Skip. Billy Thomson & Ashley Jeffries announce plans to marry in 2012.

Birthdays & Celebrations

Send dates & names...tomhawrylko@optonline.net Martha Derendal celebrates a birthday on Nov. 6, reports husband Matthew and children Brian and Michael.

Jazzlyn Caba ................11/1 Robyn Jo Paci................11/2 Thomas Scancarella .......11/2 Kelly Tierney .................11/3 Lance Dearing ...............11/4 Andrew Seitz ................11/4 Victoria Krzysztofczyk ....11/5 Tanya Ressetar...............11/5 Nicole Lorraine Bonin.....11/6 Martha Derendal ...........11/6 Danielle Osellame .........11/6 Kristen Soltis..................11/6 James Ball.....................11/7 Kevin Lord.....................11/7 Francine Anderson.........11/8

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Ray Konopinski..............11/8 Marie Sanzo .................11/8 Donna Camp ................11/9 Tricia Montague ............11/9 Brandy Stiles ...............11/10 Tom Szieber ................11/10 Stacey Van Blarcom Takacs.....................11/10 Joseph Franek III ..........11/11 Laura Gasior ...............11/12 Geraldine Ball .............11/13 Patricia Franek ............11/13 Robert Paci .................11/13 Gregory Chase ...........11/15 Matthew Phillips ..........11/16

Peter Kedl pictured with his daughter Ottilia, celebrates a birthday on Nov. 25.

Anthony Wrobel ..........11/16 Marilyn Velez ..............11/18 Joseph Tyler ................11/19 Joseph Guerra...............1/20 Jon Whiting ................11/21 Andreas Dimitratos ......11/22

Nicole Mokray will be 11 on Nov. 7.

Nancy Hawrylko will turn 26 on Nov.19.

Katerina Dimitratos ......11/22 Margaret Egner ...........11/22 Eileen Fierro................11/25 Crystal Lanham............11/25 Rachel Prehodka-Spindel ..11/25 Kristen Bridda .............11/26 Jessi Cholewczynski .....11/26 Dillon Curtiss...............11/26 Bethany Havriliak ........11/26 Kelly Moran ................11/27 Sami Suaifan...............11/28 Amanda Grace Feiner..11/29 Christopher Seitz .........11/29 Kaitlyn Graham ...........11/30 Barbara Luzniak ..........11/30

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LETTERS to the EDITOR Thanks for taking the time to be with those of us associated with the Fighting Mustangs of 1946 as we gathered at the stadium recently to lend support to the team of 2011.

As you know, we also marked the 65th anniversary of the still famous Oyster Bowl post season game played in Norfolk, Virginia.

We enjoyed reminiscing the highlights of that first ever championship year as if it were yesterday.

But the most impressive part of the day was when Mustang Coach

Steve Covello literally stopped practice and gathered his team together so they could meet us.

His words to his team regarding the Clifton teams of an earlier era and of our respective contributions to building the foundation for what today is a football program and facility worthy of respect throughout the entire state was most impressive and meaningful both to us and his players.

We all left the stadium with a gratifying feeling and extremely

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proud to have played football for Clifton High School, and in so doing, having also left a record of some worthy accomplishment.

Bob Pityo, CHS 1946 Cedar Grove

If your magazine had ears they must have been ringing as the October edition was the topic of a conversation at United Reformed dinner. Pastor Weber and everyone at our monthly get together was so pleased with the article Carol Leonard wrote and the whole magazine in general. Roy and I thought it was one of the best — not that they all are not informative and enjoyable—but this one moreso.

Helen and Roy Berkenbush Clifton

The October article ‘Open Door Policy at Downtown Church’ stated “The buildings are aging and in need of repair. There are leaks in the roof on each building but most prominently in the church, where decades of rainwater have eroded and curled plaster on the walls.”

The article never mentioned that Fr. Victor Mazza, the former pastor, completed a capital campaign to repair the church and that all the work was done to fix the damages.

By leaving out these facts, you give the impression the church still leaks and the church still has to be repaired. In all due respect, that’s an omission because it also implies the new pastor now has to deal with the problem. Has Joe Hawrylko, who wrote the article, ever been in that church? He should have done the proper research to get all the facts.

Richard Janusz Clifton

Tomahawk Promotions 1288 main avenue Clifton, nJ 07011

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