Former mayor, proud of his community, spent his life in Union

(Continued from Page 1) coached the American Legion baseball team. He was very active in the community. He was a very good athlete. He was a catcher. He was a lineman in football.”

“He met Frank Pitt, a manager at First State Bank in Union, who loved sports and he loved this boy,” Russo said. “So Mike graduated and (Pitt) took him under his wing. He started as a teller at First State Bank of Union and worked his way up to being a manager of one of the branches. After two or three mergers, it became part of Bank of America. Eventually, (Bono) went with a few other banks in an administrative capacity.”

Bono spent his career in finance, working for several local banks, including Unity Bank in Union as an executive vice president.

“He stayed in the banking field until probably five or six years ago and, at that time, the city of Linden, they were well acquainted with this man’s background, and he was appointed … as the administrator of the special improvement district,” Russo said. “He worked closely with all of the merchants of the city. He did extremely well and he loved his work.”

Always active in the community, he was a past member of the Union Board of Education, the Union Township Committee and past executive director of the Uptown Linden Corp. Bono was also the former Union police commissioner and former Union mayor.

“Politically, Mike Bono ran as a member of the (Union) Board of Education and he was successful,” Russo said. “And during his years on the board, he was instrumental. He was the key person to bring aboard a football coach by the name of Lou Rettino. Under Rettino’s leadership,

Union High School was designated as one of the top five football teams in the United States.”

“From that point, Mike Bono then makes the decision to run for Township Committee,” continued Russo. “And I was on the governing body at that time, and we welcomed his desire and interest to run because he was loved and liked by all those who knew him. During that period of time, he served two terms as mayor. He was a good mayor, a good person. This man was dedicated to people who needed help. He was always first in that line, ready and willing to help, and he never stopped until he arrived at a result that would satisfy that person’s need.”

“I believe for a while he was commissioner of Recreation, one of his jobs on the Township Committee,” Jakubowski said. “He would come to our events. Playgrounds were extremely active back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. Used to be, when you grew up in Union, you spent your day in the playground.”

In his earlier years, Bono was a proprietor of Mr. Pizza and Do Me A Flavor Ice Cream Shop, both in Union.

“When he owned Mr. Pizza, the pizza parlor on Morris Avenue, his son Michael ran it,” Jakubowski said. “Certainly he was involved. A number of his family moved down to Florida.”

“Mike Bono just loved sports,” Russo said. “He followed baseball from Little League all the way up to the professional level. Football, too. And he loved fishing. He went fishing in the Poconos.

“We used to go to football games together,” added Russo. “Little League games together; sports and fishing and helping people.”