Jersey Newspaper Pioneer Dead At 99

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Frederick Thomas Becker, Avid Outdoorsman, Dies

Services scheduled for Thursday at Madison Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

'N.J.'s Historian' Wrote Books on Madison, Drew

John T. Cunningham died last week at age 96; visiting hours scheduled for Monday in Madison.

John T. Cunningham, a popular New Jersey historian who wrote more than 50 books, including histories of the Madison Area YMCA, Drew University and Madison in general, died Thursday. He was 96. Visiting hours are scheduled for Monday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at Burroughs, Kohr & Dangler Funeral Home, 106 Main Street, Madison. A memorial service for Cunningham is scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. at Morristown United Methodist Church, 50 S. Park Place, Morristown. A 1938 graduate of Drew and a resident of Florham Park for 60 years, Cunningham was remembered by Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen as a man whose "body of work stands as a monument to the greatness of New Jersey." Some of Cunningham's books were grade-school classroom …

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Funeral Held for Madison's Attorney

Family, friends and officials attended a funeral Mass for Joseph Mezzacca Jr. on Saturday morning at Our Lady of Peace Parish in New Providence.

A funeral Mass for longtime borough attorney Joseph Mezzacca Jr. was celebrated Saturday morning at Our Lady of Peace Parish in New Providence, with family, friends and Madison officials in attendance. Mezzacca counseled Madison's land use boards for decades and then advised the governing body for the last 16 years. He died Tuesday after an illness at the age of 65. The Madison resident ran a law practice on Main Street and published calendars of his photographs that highlighted his love for the Rose City's history and architecture. In his spare time, he enjoyed traveling and spending time with his family. "This is a huge loss of not only the town's institutional memory, but the loss of a truly fair, decent and great, great man," former …

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Officials Recall Keen Lawyer Who Loved Madison

Joseph Mezzacca Jr. possessed a great deal of institutional knowledge and was a great man, officials said.

Past and present Madison officials reflected on Joseph Mezzacca Jr. as news of his death spread through the community on Wednesday. The borough attorney, who counseled Madison's land use boards for decades and then advised the governing body for the last 16 years, died Tuesday after being hospitalized with an illness. He was 65. The officials recalled David vs. Goliath legal battles, with the sole practitioner facing law-firm giants and winning. They remembered the Madison resident's sense of humor and calming disposition. They recalled his annual calendars of his photographs of the Rose City that highlighted his love of Madison's architecture and history. And they thought of the "Law & Order" theme song, which Mezzacca set as his cell …

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Monsignor Puma, Eva's Village Founder, Dies

Former Madison resident and St. Vincent's pastor died Saturday. He was 85.

Former Madison resident Monsignor Vincent E. Puma opened a soup kitchen called Eva's Kitchen in the basement of an old convent in Paterson in 1982. It fed 30 people people the first day, and eventually grew into Eva's Village, a social service organization that now has housing for about 300 people, serves 1,000 meals a day and operates a clinic that sees about 5,000 patients a year. Puma—who spent most of his young adult life in Madison, graduated from St. Vincent School, served as pastor of St. Vincent Martyr Church in the 1970s, and earned a master's degree from and lectured at Drew University—died Saturday at St. Vincent’s Nursing Home in Cedar Grove, according to his obituary on the Eva's Village website. He was 85. Puma was profiled …

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Memorial Set for Former Mayor Engelsman

Ralph G. Engelsman, mayor of Madison from 1988 through 1991, died while attending a college reunion in Massachusetts. He was 82.

Ralph G. Engelsman, a former Madison mayor who was active with many community organizations, died on May 24, 2012, in Amherst, Mass., while attending his 60th Class Reunion at Amherst College. Engelsman, the borough's mayor from 1988 to 1991, was known for planning for the future, honoring volunteers and reaching a settlement with the state Department of Environmental Protection, according to his obituary. He was 82. "When I prepared to be mayor here, Ralph was constantly giving me advice," Mayor Bob Conley said during Wednesday's Borough Council meeting. "And I look back on watching him up here and how he was a consensus builder and how he had a great look to the future." A moment of silence was held in his honor and the mayor asked for …

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Whitney Houston Laid to Rest in Westfield

Procession arrived at noon Sunday for burial ceremony at Fairview Cemetery. Nearly 100 fans shouted 'We love you, Whitney' as hearse turned into the cemetery.

The vigil at Fairview Cemetery began at first light Sunday morning. There were no mourners, just reporters and photographers mingling congenially as they staked out a good spot for their reports back to the network morning shows or a position for the perfect photo of the funeral procession bringing Whitney Houston to the cemetery for her burial. Police officers arrived before daylight, at 6 a.m., to secure every possible corner of the Fairview property, from the Cranford border along Union County College to the south and E. Broad Street to the north. At the western end of the cemetery, Gallows Hill Road was closed to prevent any neighborhood street from messing up any potential route in which the procession of hearses and limos that would …

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5:12 pm on Tuesday, November 27, 2012

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DeCroce: A GOPer Who Could Get Things Done

Officials recall Legislator who acted as model and teacher

One of the last acts Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce performed Monday during a marathon Legislative session was to marshal through the Assembly a bill he co-sponsored that boosted development opportunities and annoyed environmentalists. DeCroce, 75,  died Monday after the session that closed out the 214th Legislature. DeCroce,  from Parsippany, served in the Assembly since 1989 and  was named the his party’s leader there in 2003. His wife, Betty Lou DeCroce, is a deputy commissioner with the Department of Community Affairs. He was a former Morris County freeholder. DeCroce's death comes on the heels of the passing of another GOP assemblyman, Peter Biondi of Somerset County, who died Nov. 10, two days after he was re-elected to an …

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