PARSIPPANY — The Parsippany Democratic Committee held its 17th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Lunch on Sunday, March 13 at Kafe Mozart. The event was standing room only with special guest speaker Jersey City Mayor and a 2017 gubernatorial hopeful, Steven M. Fulop.
Fulop was elected the 49th Mayor of Jersey City on May 14, 2013.
During his time as Mayor, he has shown what smart, progressive leadership can accomplish – and opened a new chapter for Jersey City.
Under his leadership, Jersey City became the first city in the state – and the sixth city in the country – to ensure paid sick leave. Steve has pioneered new ideas for helping prisoners re-enter society; he’s passed legislation to protect small businesses; encouraged more to open shop; made Jersey City one of the greenest towns in the nation. He’s undertaken sweeping public safety reform; the JCPD is now seen as a model for diversity around the nation. And he’s led the city to record economic development that’s benefited families of all income levels. All without raising taxes.
Steve is a first-generation American, a lifelong New Jerseyan, a Marine, and a triathlete. He grew up in a Jewish family in Edison, New Jersey, the son of Romanian immigrants. His mother was the daughter of Holocaust survivors and worked in an immigration services office helping others gain citizenship. His father owned a delicatessen nearby in Newark, where Steve worked behind the counter as a teenager.
Steve graduated from Binghamton University in 1999 and spent time abroad studying at Oxford University in the UK. After college, he joined Goldman Sachs, the investment banking firm, working in Chicago and later in Manhattan and Jersey City.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Steve was working in lower Manhattan when he saw the first plane strike the Twin Towers. A few weeks later, he decided to put his career at Goldman Sachs on hold and join the United States Marine Corps.
Steve’s Reserve Unit deployed to Iraq in January 2003. There, Steve served as part of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion. He traveled into Baghdad during the early weeks of the war.
In 2006, Steve completed his service to the Marine Corps Reserve with the rank of Corporal.
After his service in Iraq, Steve returned to Goldman Sachs, leaving in early 2006 to take a position at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. That year, he also completed both his Masters in Business Administration at the New York University Stern School of Business and his Masters in Public Administration at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
Steve first tried his hand at politics, running for Congress in 2004. He lost.
But the next year, Steve ran for the Jersey City Council, and the result was different. He served as a councilman for eight years before becoming Mayor.
Also during the luncheon, the committee honored, Julia and Robert Peterson.
Brooklyn-born Bob and Parsippany born Julia met while working in a Rochester, Federally-funded Follow Through program. They lived there for over thirty years, bought a house and raised Jessica and Mark. They served on board of the Unitarian Church and Delphi (Bob) and the League of Women Voters and various (PTA’s). Bob worked for twenty-one of those years as a pre-shcool diagnostic psychologist with the City School District. Julie earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and papermaking and worked as a program directory linking performances and teaching artists with teachers.
They moved to Parsippany in 2004 to main the Livingston Benedict House, a national register property which has been in Julia’s family since 1857.
Bob serves on the board of Preschool Advantage, which gives scholarships to pre-school to families that cannot afford the cost. Julie servers on the board of Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms and is a member of the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee of Parsippany-Troy Hills.
Their ten years on the executive committee of the Democratic Committee have been filled with friendship and hard work. Thanks to all who have volunteered, run, canvassed and phoned. They have met and come to know a group of wonderful people, and will keep working to get good candidates elected.
Committee member MaryAnn Fisher said “Such a wonderful celebration of the Democratic spirit and of the most amazing couple that ignites that spirit. Thank you Bob and Julia Dutton Peterson for all that you do and all that you are!”
For more information on Parsippany Democratic Committee, click here.
Photos by Joanne Rich.
