Deaths on top of deaths make it a very difficult time
Every Friday my local PBS station presents tear-provoking, gutwrenching vignettes on five individuals who passed away from COVID- 19. It is very sad, and what makes it far worse is that a significant portion of the deaths could have been avoided had we all worn masks and socially distanced — an incredibly small burden to bear to prevent the deaths of our fellow Americans.
I have been fortunate in that I have not lost anyone close to me to the coronavirus. Tens of millions of Americans have not been so lucky and have had to grapple with the loss of loved ones, without a chance to say goodbye. This is, of course, on top of losses that each of us bear each year.
Among 2020’s non-Covid losses, Mercer County residents count four political giants — Assemblyman Paul Kramer, State Senator Francis (“Franny’) McManimon, Hamilton Mayor Jack Rafferty and Surrogate Joe Tighue. Paul and Jack were Republicans and Franny and Joe Democrats. I knew each of these four gentlemen, some better than others.
In 1987, I ran on a ticket with Joe Bocchini and Shirley Turner against Bill Mathesius, Paul Kramer and Robert Prunetti. Our ticket lost, but I became friendly with Paul. We’d talk fairly frequently about our kids, about politics and about columns I’d written. Surprisingly, Paul, a devoted Republican, and I agreed more than you’d expect.
Over the years I’d see Jack Rafferty from time to time, most frequently at the corner table at Marsilio’s Kitchen when it was still located in the Burg and later at Rossi’s Bar and Grill in Hamilton. We’d chat briefly about old times and common friends. A few years ago I wrote a column about the demise of the Republican Party in Mercer County. In it I wrote some nice things about Jack including that he was “truly beloved and extremely well-liked by politicians on both sides of the aisle.” I got a call from Jack from Florida thanking me for the kind words. I was really surprised, but I should not have been; that was vintage Jack Rafferty. He was a genuine grass-roots politician who enjoyed the retail aspects of politics and it came through in his dealings with people.
Franny McManimon was an extremely adept politician. He managed to head up the Hamilton Township Parks and Recreation Department from 1959 to 1989 (the bulk of the time in the Republican Rafferty administration) while simultaneously representing Hamilton as a Democrat in the Assembly (from 19721982) and from 1982-1992 in the Senate. To be able to pull that off seamlessly, even in less partisan times, was a remarkable feat of political acumen.
Joe Tighue was a three-term Freeholder and served for 10 years as Surrogate. In 1983 he won the Democratic nomination for County Executive but lost to incumbent Bill Mathesius after a tough primary battle in which he defeated Dallas Dixon, whom I supported. Over the years, I got to know Joe well from my involvement in Democratic politics. I’d always felt that had he not had to face a divisive primary challenge he might have had a better chance of becoming County Executive. Not too long before his sudden passing, I got a chance to talk to Joe about my feelings when he volunteered to do some real estate appraisal work for a non-profit client I was working for on a pro-bono basis. Joe was a very intelligent caring person who would have been an outstanding county executive.
On a personal level I lost two people this past year whom I was extremely fond of. The first was Ben Abeles, a physicist whose research on alloys led to the technology used to power space station probes. Ben was the only member of his family to escape the Holocaust because his parents had the foresight in 1939 to send their 14-year-old son from Prague to England in the so-called Kindertransport (German for “children transport”) organized rescue effort. This scheme took place nine months prior to the outbreak of WWII. It saved nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany.
I worked very close with Ben for years in my role as fundraising consultant to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK). Ben created and installed TASK’s first database management system that was crucial to the organization’s ongoing fundraising success.
The second person who passed is Salvatore “Buddy” Guido, whom I met through Dennis Micai, who I also worked closely with for many years at TASK. Buddy was Dennis’s cousin, but in his words “more like a brother.” Buddy, Dennis and my friend Steve Leder played a lot of bad golf over the past few years. I really like playing with Buddy, because, like me, he was serious about the game and was annoyed when he didn’t play it the way he knew he could. He was an allaround nice guy and although we didn’t agree on politics he was a genuine “mensch” in the truest sense of the word and I will really miss him.