- Date Of Birth: January 12, 1918
- Date Of Death: December 27, 2013
- State: New Jersey
As published in THE RECORD page L-6, Tuesday, December 31, 2013 by Staff Writer Jay Levin
Albert Logan, an envelope manufacturer who led New Milford with a steady hand during 14 years as mayor, died Friday. He was 95 and lived in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Mr. Logan’s path to public service ran through youth sports. The father of four managed a Little League baseball team to eight pennants and presided over the borough’s junior football organization. A Democrat, he won three elections in the 1960s- to the Board of Education, the borough Council and in 1968, the mayoralty.
“He lived for the town,” said Mr. Logan’s daughter, Ginna. “He’d come home from work at 6pm on the nose, eat dinner, and then leave for Borough Hall at 6:45.”
On Wednesday evenings, he hosted an open house at the Borough Hall office.
His administration’s accomplishments included obtaining rent subsidies for senior citizen garden-apartment dwellers, expanding recreation facilities and launching a ranger program to combat vandalism by young people.
Vandalism was a particularly vexing problem for Mr. Logan who was once pictured in The Record standing by a Little League dugout that had been smashed to pieces.
“It’s a way of life today,” he told the newspaper. And unless the court system treats youth offenders like criminals, there is nothing we can do about it.”
Mr. Logan won reelections by comfortable margins and in 1978 scoffed at the credentials of his GOP challenger, a political newcomer. “How can a person have the audacity to step off the street into the Mayor’s job?” he asked. “Usually you work your way up.”
The following year, Mr. Logan tried working his way up to the County office but lost a race for Freeholder. He retired from politics at the end of that mayoral term.
In 1983, the council chose the former mayor as New Milford’s No. 1 Citizen to be honored, along with 38 other Bergen County residents, at a ceremony coinciding with the celebration f the county’s tricentennial.
The Brooklyn-born Mr. Logan, who served stateside with the Navy during World War II, was an executive with the C&M Envelope Co. in Jersey City.
He and his wife, Virginia retired to Florida in 1999. Virginia Logan died in 2005 and a daughter, Dianne Bellamore, died in October.
Mr. Logan is survived by his children, Albert Jr. of Franklin Lakes, Dick of Lebanon, N.H., and Ginna Logan of New Milford; a sister, Margaret Mary O’Brien of Vineland; seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
