WHS Alum Showing Talent in TV News World

It continues to be an exciting time here in Westfield with everyone busy as the weather starts getting warmer and people getting outside more and more. The downtown has more foot traffic and the parks are starting to populate. And to help kick off some spring time reading, I have some news of a Westfield alum making it big in TV news. Plus some news of a great theater performance coming up this weekend, a local store doing well and a welcome to a new About Town columnist in another town.

Here is what is going on about town.

DODD HITS HIS STRIDE IN TV NEWS

Tim Dodd has come a long way from his days over growing up on Elm Street and graduating from Westfield High School back in 1986. He’s established himself in the news industry as a director with WCBS, channel 2, in New York.

Dodd went off to Monmouth University after WHS, majoring in communications and working at the campus radio station as an on-air DJ and was the managing editor of the campus newspaper, and even fitting an internship at Suburban Cablevision. He went to Monmouth to combine many of his loves.

“I found out I could live on the beach, surf and go to college,” he said.

After Monmouth, Dodd went to work for the then fledgling Court TV, which soon hit it big when the O.J. Simpson trial took grip on the nation.

“So we covered the trial gavel-to-gavel and would produce highlight shows at night,” he said. “I was the associate director on the nightly show, Prime Time Justice with Terry Moran (now the host of Nightline on ABC).”

Following O.J.’s aquittel, Dodd found himself promoted to director and moved onto a variety of new cases and issues to cover, including the Oklahoma City bombing case and the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton. He started freelancing with stations around New York and had a brief stint at BET as well, working with their music shows and performers such as Beyonce and Justin Timberlake.

“Then 9/11 happened and I was working 24/7 in local news in New York City,” he said.

Dodd said this schedule involved working with many of the local morning and evening news shows in the city, getting maybe three to four hours a sleep a night, commuting between his New York office and his Hoboken apartment. He moved over to WCBS full time in 2002 as a director, working first with a new weekend morning news magazine show. Most of his work involves working with the producers and on-air anchors to plan out the newscast and the technical aspects.

Dodd’s work has been professionally recognized with an Emmy for directing breaking news coverage. This award came for his work in 2005 when a five-story retaining wall collapsed on the Upper West Side, burying parts of the street in rock.

Dodd now lives down in Marlboro with his wife, Robbi, and their kids, Taylor and Jack. He reports that his brothers, Jim and Mike, have both recently moved back to New Jersey, after being in California and Indiana for a bit. While he is down in Marlboro, Dodd says he has many fond memories of growing up in Westfield.

“Met a lot of friends then that I am still friends with today, played little league baseball, soccer and wrestling up through high school with my older brother Jim and younger brother Mike, “ he said. “Great thing about Elm street, we could walk to Franklin, and downtown - then ride our bikes to Roosevelt Jr. and high school.”

Growing up, Dodd worked at Robert Treat Deli on Quimby Street and delivered the Suburban News and the Star-Ledger on his bike.

“I remember walking downtown to Woolworths five and dime to buy cap guns and play Cowboys and Indians with all the kids in the neighborhood on Elm Street -The Wards (Bill and Jane) and Kinsella's (Dennis and Kelly),” he said. “My next-door neighbors the Wards still live there! Growing up Westfield, soccer was a big part of our lives - we all played on the travel teams and would play tournaments all the time all over New Jersey.”

He also remembers high school parties and soccer games and hanging out at Ferraro’s downtown, which he remembers as a small pizzeria. Dodd said The Music Staff and Leader Store were also frequent stops.

“Westfield always reminded my of a Norman Rockwell painting,” he said. “With winters playing ice hockey on Gregory’s Pond (by Robbie Schmalz’s house) and summers playing baseball into the night at Tamaques Park.”

AN EVENING OF THEATER

A group of Westfield High School students has been working hard for months to create a great musical and their efforts take to the stage starting on Thursday. If you have time to check it out, stop by WHS either Thursday, Friday or Saturday at 7:30 to catch “Sweeney Todd,” the high school’s spring musical. The cast and crew, under the direction of Daniel Devlin, have been working hard and WHS has a great history of putting on theatrical productions.

Check it out.

A LOVE OF SPICE

It’s been a busy few days for the Savory Spice Shop. On Saturday they had a very crowded grand opening party to celebrate their first few months in the community. On Sunday they contributed to the tricky tray at the Taste of Cranford. Their contribution, which was popular in the bidding was a basket of various salts and a salt book.

If you haven’t stopped by the Savory Spice Shop, stop by. They are crowded all the time and have proved popular with Westfielders in only a few short months. I also wanted to mention the , which was the second annual this year, and is a great fundraiser for the United Way of Cranford. The event is in March and brings in restaurants from around the region.

AN ABOUT TOWN WELCOME

I wanted to welcome a new About Town columnist to the Patch family here in Union County. Martha Papson Garcia launched the Cranford Patch About Town column this week. Martha is a former deputy mayor of Cranford, a longtime community volunteer/PTA president and a retired Army officer. Here’s her .

Welcome aboard Martha!