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Farewell to Fair Haven’s Thomas Vetterl

Fair Haven Fire Department mourns Thomas Vetterl. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Fair Haven Fire Department mourns Thomas Vetterl.
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

The marquee on the Fair Haven Firehouse is once again blanketed in memorial buntings. Borough firemen and longtime residents are in mourning.

Sixty-year fire company member and deep-rooted resident Thomas Vetterl “passed away peacefully” on Oct. 19 in Florida where he had relocated in his retirement years, according to his obituary in the Palm Beach Post. He was 93.

Born in Paterson, he spent most of his life in Red Bank and Fair Haven, where he was a member of the Church of the Nativity.

A graduate of Red Bank High School in 1941, Thomas was a star athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball.

A U.S. Army World War II veteran, Thomas Vetterl served as a staff sergeant in the 112th Field Artillery Division of the New Jersey National Guard, according to his obituary.

After being honorably discharged, he became a civil service employee — a motor vehicle foreman in the HISA, CECOM section of Fort Monmouth, retiring in 1985 after a 35-year career.

He was an exempt member of the Fair Haven Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 until his death.

Formerly, he was an active member of B.P.O.E. Lodge #233 in Red Bank, and the American Legion in Tequesta, FL.

He was known to love softball and was a member of Val’s Pal Softball Club in Rumson, and in Florida was a member of Jupiter Men’s Softball Association and Staying Alive Fitness Club, Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

He was predeceased by his wife, the late Doris G. Vetterl, in 1987.

He is survived by:  two sons, Thomas J., of Gilbert, AZ, and Robert D., of Wakefield, RI; and six grandchildren, Alison, Thomas, Robert, Kristen, Victoria and Justin.

A memorial celebration will be held Nov. 7 at John E. Day Funeral Home, Red Bank. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Wounded Warriors Fund.

Local Life

This Weekend: R-FH Area Halloween Fun

The Halloween spirit is in the air and festivities to conjure it up into a hearty haunt abound this weekend.

There are parades, parties, costume contests, a haunted theater a regional run, and an egg hunt — yes, an egg hunt.

It all starts on Friday night with …

• Brookdale Community College’s Haunted Theater:

Adult tours are held Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at the college’s Performing Arts Center.

General admission is $12, senior admission is $10 (age 62 and up, college staff and alumni), high school students pay $8, and Brookdale students are admitted for $5 (two-ticket limit).

Saturday …

• Fair Haven’s Halloween Egg Hunt starts at 5:30 p.m. at Fair Haven Fields near the concession stand.

It’s a play on the Easter Egg Hunt with a Halloween twist. The fields will be peppered with black and orange candy-filled eggs. Be there 15 minutes early and bring a bag for eggs.

The hunt is free.

• After the hunt, borough boy scout troops are hosting their Haunted Hike at 6:15 p.m.

The hike will take participants through the Fair Haven Fields Nature Area. Admission is a canned food item for donation.

Sunday …

 

• The regional 22nd Annual Trick or Trot 5K Race and Pet Walk, hosted by the Jersey Shore Running Club (JSRC) and the Deal Fire Company No. 2, will take place at 11 a.m. at the Deal Casino in Deal.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the homeless animals at the Monmouth County SPCA and the Deal Fire Company. Over the past 21 years, the Trick or Trot has attracted nearly 50,000 participants and raised more than $25,000 for its beneficiaries. Formerly held in Long Branch, the large, regional run is now in Deal.

Race-day registration in person begins at the Deal Casino at 9:30 a.m. The Trick or Trot Kids Dash starts at 10:30 a.m., followed by the 5K Race at 11 a.m., with the Pet Walk at 11:05 a.m.

The People and Pet Costume Parades will take place at 11:45 a.m., followed by awards and prizes! Deal Fire Company will host a post-race party on site with hot dogs, beverages and music.

Registration costs for the 5K and Pet Walk are $25. Registration for the Kids Dashes is $15. Long-sleeved t-shirts are provided to all who pre-register.

Fair Haven Halloween Parade 2014 Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Fair Haven Halloween Parade 2014
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

• The Fair Haven Halloween Parade/Costume Contest lines up at Knollwood School on Hance Road at 1:30 p.m. and makes its way down Hance and River roads and to the Fair Haven Firehouse at 2 p.m.

Prizes will be given out at the firehouse.

Children of all ages are welcome.

Rumson Halloween 2014 Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Rumson Halloween 2014
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

• The Rumson Halloween Parade and Party runs at Forrestdale School from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

Line-up is at the school’s main entrance at 3:15 p.m. There will be a costume contest and prizes, thematic games and activities, hot dogs and beverages and a trick-or-treat.

 

Schools Scene

Getting Google App-Educated in Fair Haven Schools

Knollwood School fifth-grader Andon Milouchev and Fair Haven School District EdTech Coach Chris Aviles prepare to make Google presentations to parents. Photo/Fair Haven School District
Knollwood School fifth-grader Andon Milouchev and Fair Haven School District EdTech Coach Chris Aviles prepare to make Google presentations to parents.
Photo/Fair Haven School District

Parents of Fair Haven students recently discovered How Google Apps for Education Is Improving Schools.

A series of events, hosted by Fair Haven School District EdTech Coach Chris Aviles on Oct. 5, featured a video presentation by Knollwood School fifth-grader Andon Milouchev.

Continue reading Getting Google App-Educated in Fair Haven Schools →

Local Life

Focus: Falling for the Rumson-Fair Haven Riverfront

Video

Few words are needed, if any, when taking in the view of the river from the banks of the Navesink in Rumson and Fair Haven.

Soaked in the sun of a warm fall day, the scene just doesn’t get any more comforting. It seems to smile back and embrace. And it never gets old.

Get a glimpse. Take it in.

— Elaine Van Develde

Local Life

Black Squirrel Makes Fair Haven Debut

Uncommon sighting of a black squirrel in Fair Haven Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Uncommon sighting of a black squirrel in Fair Haven
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

It’s not downright nuts, but it’s also not common to sight a black squirrel in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

Yet, scampering around William Street in Fair Haven, there one was — bolting across the street, darting up a tree and copping a squat to snack on his harvested nut.

They’re not indigenous to the area like the preppie. In fact, the black squirrel is as uncommon here as high hair.

No one seems squirrelly about their rather rare sightings lately. And where the handsome(ish) rodents are known to settle — like Washington, D.C. and the campus of Princeton University, among other places — residents tend to take pride in the fact that they’ve nested in their hometowns.

Evolving from the same species of squirrel as their Eastern gray descendants, black squirrels originally hailed from Canada and can comprise as much as 25 percent of the total usual grey squirrel population, or one in 10,000.

Check out this Washington Post column about them by John Kelly.

Have you seen this guy or any others in the area? Where?

— Elaine Van Develde

Schools Scene

RFH Students ‘Bag a Lunch and Help a Bunch’

RFH team captains displaying a flyer created for the Bag a Lunch fundraising initiative are Victoria Hempstead and Willis Manelski. Photo/RFH
RFH team captains displaying a flyer created for the Bag a Lunch fundraising initiative are Victoria Hempstead and Willis Manelski.
Photo/RFH

Bag it.

That’s what members of the  Chinese, French and Spanish National Honor societies at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) recently asked students to do — to “bag a lunch and help a bunch,” as the slogan for the Table to Table charitable initiative goes.

Table to Table provides meals to New Jersey families in need. RFH put $430 in its coffers when students on Oct. 14 brought home brown paper lunch bags and returned them to Bag a Lunch team captains at school filled with the amount of cash they would typically spend on a single lunch.

“I am very pleased with the participation of the RFH students, and the work of our team captains,” RFH French Teacher Christine Berg said. “And I am happy that the money raised will be used to help our fellow New Jersey residents.”

— Edited press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional School District

Business Buzz, Opinion

I’ll Just Pick: Val’s Lobster Pie

By Elaine Van Develde

It’s as good as it gets for anyone in the area and beyond — that classic lobster pizza at Val’s Tavern in Rumson.

The pie, as they call it, is pretty simple, yet has been a deluxe gourmet sort of pizza treat for many for decades.

It’s a thin-crust pizza flush with all the normal pizza stuff, but great quality, like the good sauce and cheese. Add to that some Brazilian lobster and, if you so choose, some hot sauce.

Continue reading I’ll Just Pick: Val’s Lobster Pie →

Fair Haven Police and Fire Files, Local Life

Hail to the Chief: Darryl Breckenridge’s Retirement Dinner

By Elaine Van Develde

He lived his dream.

And for now former Fair Haven Police Chief Darryl Breckenridge, retirement doesn’t mean he’s awakening to any harsh reality — just vivid gratitude.

While he’s been officially off the job since Oct. 1, the chief’s surreal 38-year career culminated in a lucid award-strewn farewell retirement dinner last Thursday.

Roughly 200 state, county and local dignitaries, police and chiefs from several nearby towns, family and friends gathered at Raven and the Peach in Breckenridge’s hometown Fair Haven to celebrate his accomplishments, honor him with certificates and awards — even the key to Fair Haven — party with him and just plain thank him for his service.

“I just love this man!” a teary eyed Eileen O’Neill, widow of former Chief Bobby O’Neill said as she hugged and held the face of the man she knew as the kid her husband took on ride-alongs and mentored .

There were other mentors, too  … former chiefs Ricky Towler, Lou DeVito. Then there was, of course, the chief who started it all for a 5-year-old Breckenridge when he stopped at his house to offer his mom a job as a crossing guard  — Carl Jakubecy.

Then there was his mom, Dorothy — the woman Breckenridge credits with giving him the “character” to succeed and realize his dream.

“To have a dream at five years old and to actually see that dream come to fruition … Just being a patrolman and being fortunate enough to rise through the ranks of chief of police in the town where I wanted to do so is truly amazing … It’s more amazing when you go back and look at at our country in the 1960s … there was so much turmoil in the world, so much unrest within our country, there were riots on the street and hatred … there was so much uncertainty  …”

Breckenridge’s children, Tyler, D.J. and Whitney, stood before their dad, certain of his success and their pride in him. “There aren’t enough words to describe how proud we are of our dad,” Whitney said.

The sentiment was echoed by D.J., who is now Fair Haven’s Recreation director.

He talked about the respect and pride his father, passing down that “character” his grandmother taught, was grateful, not only for the success, but also for the community in which he was raised. That community, Fair Haven, has always been family to him as well, D.J., a little choked up, said.

“I know that it’s very important for him to have all these Fair Haven residents here in addition to everyone else,” he said. “Because Fair Haven, for my dad, was always family and it always will be …”

Yes. Protecting and serving his hometown family was Darryl Breckenridge’s dream.  He’s still living it in its second act. Although now, as he told the crowd, “I can let my hair down … Well, I can let down what hair I have.

“For me to have a dream of that magnitude and to be able to realize it … It’s really amazing. It happened because we are in this country. We have the best country in the world. God bless America. God bless you all.”

 

Congrats, Darryl, from your Fair Haven family!

Don’t forget to click on the lower right icon of the slideshow to enlarge. We had a few photo tech issues. So, in addition to the somewhat compromised quality of some of the photos, we also apologize for the fact that somehow the entire police department ended up looking like something out of a Halloween movie — all white eyes. Who knew? Officers of the Corn? Sorry!

 

 

Local Life

Retro First RFH Soccer Girl

 

Chris Bowden, RFH Class of 1976 was the first girl to play soccer on the boys' team. Photo/RFH 1976 Yearbook
Chris Bowden, RFH Class of 1976 was the first girl to play soccer on the boys’ team.
Photo/RFH 1976 Yearbook

Yes, soccer season has kicked in.

When Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect shared a photo of the boys’ team from back in the late 1970s, RFH grads challenged all to remember who the first girl was to play on the boys team (since there was no girls team then).

We found her and a photo of the team that year, which was 1975-76.  Remember? It was Chris Bowden, RFH Class of 1976. They were playing, of course, in 1975.

So, the Retro Pic of the Day honors that first girl to kick in some girl power on the RFH Boys Soccer team a few decades ago.

Do you remember in which year RFH formed its first girls’ soccer team? We think it was the 1980s. How about 1983? Remember who the captains of that team were?

 

Schools Scene

An RFH Look at the College Admissions Process

Tim Lee, Director of Undergraduate Admission at University at Albany, SUNY, discusses the admission process with parents during the Interactive College Admissions Committee Workshop at RFH. Photo/RFH
Tim Lee, Director of Undergraduate Admission at University at Albany, SUNY, discusses the admission process with parents during the Interactive College Admissions Committee Workshop at RFH.
Photo/RFH

Roughy 100 Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) students recently participated in a forum dubbed Interactive College Admissions Committee Workshop.

The Oct. 8 presentation offered an insider’s view into the college admission process.

Continue reading An RFH Look at the College Admissions Process →

Schools Scene

Fair Haven Schools’ ‘Week of Respect’

The Fair Haven School District marked its recent Week of Respect with activities and new initiatives designed to encourage kindness and acceptance.

The state-mandated week-long designation, featuring respect-inspired activities from Oct. 5 to 9, showcased Laraine Gaunt at Viola L. Sickles School on the first day. Gaunt kicked off  new yearlong initiative dubbed It’s OK 2B Different.

Continue reading Fair Haven Schools’ ‘Week of Respect’ →

Local Life, News

So Long to Church Street’s Church in Fair Haven

By Elaine Van Develde (photos and story)

The namesake of Church Street in Fair Haven will soon be gone.

The steeple of the longstanding Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion at the corner of the aptly coined Church Street and River Road is still standing, but most of the house of worship has been demolished.

As part of a Planning Board-approved subdivision plan, the demolition of the six-year-shuttered church on a .54-acre parcel, the last renovation of which  was deemed a “do-it-yourself project by a very adventurous (group of) builder(s)” in the late 1960s by Rumson builder Kolarsick attorney Brooks Von Arx, began on Tuesday.

As of 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, only the front quarter of the church remained.

Von Arx had said that razing the church was warranted to make way for the unanimously board-approved three-home subdivision because the structure was found to be in disrepair and lacked the architectural integrity or historic background to warrant preservation.

Along with the church, a two-story dwelling and former nursery school on the site were demolished.

The with no historic or architectural integrity to warrant preservation, will now be razed, as will a former nursery school, sanctuary and two-story rectory dwelling that sit on the site.

A church has sat at the location since the late 1800s, thus the namesake street.

For more information on the issue, click here.