Former Mayor Boothe Remembered as "a Giant in the History of the Town"

Former Mayor Garland "Bud" Boothe, Jr. is being remembered for his energy, outside the box thinking and dedication to Westfield and town history following his death last week.

Boothe, who was the town's mayor for five years in the 1990s, passed away last week at the age of 76 following a long illness. Boothe's widow, Gaile, has announced that a public memorial service will be held on Dec. 19 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church on East Broad Street. The time of the service has not been determined.

Boothe is being remembered for a variety of accomplishments, both during his tenure as mayor and second ward councilman and as an active community volunteer. Among his accomplishments are the creation of the town's special improvement district, the planning and construction of both phases of senior housing in town, the establishment of the town's first four way stop at the intersection at Elmer Street and Lenox Avenue, the creation of the trolley tour of downtown history, authoring a guidebook for downtown walking tours, designing and constructing a three dimensional model of the town's geographic history, obtaining the historic Reeve House for the town and historical society and creating a burma shave of town history.

"He will go down as a giant in the history of the town," said former Mayor Tom Jardim, who succeeded Boothe in 1997.

Walking Encyclopedia of Westfield History

While Boothe is remembered by many residents for his 16 years of service in elective office, the former mayor may be best remembered by many for his work with the Westfield Historical Society. A lifelong history buff, Boothe was known for what Jardim described as an encyclopedic knowledge of Westfield history.

While serving in local government, Boothe played a key role in having the Reeve family donate their family home on Mountain Avenue to the town with the long term intention of creating a town museum in the house and on the land. In later years, Boothe served on the historical society's building committee seeking to create a museum in the house and build an archival center on the grounds of the house.

Downtown Westfield Corporation Executive Director Sherry Cronin, who worked with Boothe in the historical society, recalled that even his illness could not keep Boothe from wanting to see the archival center to completion. Even while bed ridden in his final weeks, Boothe would send e-mails to historical society colleagues with ideas and requests for the Reeve House project and ways to get the center built.

"He was a tireless worker," Cronin said. "I went to see him several times at the hospice center and said I was trying to catch up on the e-mails."

Cronin said in some of those e-mails, Boothe proposed himself playing a role in the construction of the archival center, even if he could not wield a hammer himself.

"He wanted to oversee an old fashioned barn raising for the Reeve House archival center," Cronin said.

The final dedication that the former mayor showed to the historical society is fitting with his personality many who knew him said. Mrs. Boothe said her husband was a dedicated volunteer for Habitat for Humanity in Plainfield and enjoyed construction and working with his hands. Carrie Hansen, who served on the historical society's building committee with Boothe, said his energy and hands on commitment played a key role in getting the project to the point it is today.

"He had a lot of energy and stamina," Hansen said. "He kept the pressure on us. I enjoyed working with him. He was open to new ideas. He really thought about things."

In terms of town history, Boothe was a frequent speaker at historical society luncheons on a variety of topics. Of particular interest were issues relating to the state's highway system and the New Jersey Turnpike and toll roads. According to Nancy Priest, the historical society president, Boothe wrote his senior thesis at Princeton University on the subject of the state's toll roads.

Priest said Boothe played a key role in renovating the train station including keeping the train's historic nature preserved. As a part of this, he worked with a local artist to have historic photos of the town engraved on tiles to form mosaics of town history formed.

"He was very proud of that," Priest said.

In putting the train station project together, Priest noted that Boothe organized a group of historical society officers to ride the train to other stations to see what they had done and figure out exactly how people walked through the station in order to determine the best places to position the historic scenes.

"He never just did things, he got involved with things," she said.

Cronin noted that Boothe played a key role in bringing the Lewis and Clark national tour to Westfield several years ago and set up a program at the Memorial Library to hear about the explorers. Outside of this, Boothe put his building skills to work with his love of town history. He designed and created a three dimensional model of the town's geographic history, showing the land Westfield lost to the creation of neighboring towns in the 19th century and the topography of the town.The model is now on display in the historical society's archives on the third floor of Board of Education headquarters on Elm Street.

"Even though it was heavy and hard to move, he was insistent that it make an appearance from time to time," Cronin said.

Combining his love of the historical society and the downtown, Boothe also worked to develop the popular holiday season trolley tours of the downtown in past years. Starting at the south side train station, Boothe would lead trolley goers on a tour through the downtown and several north side residential neighborhoods talking about the history of downtown buildings, the Rialto, the Presbyterian Church and other landmarks, before concluding at the south side train station.

"He and I worked together to create that," Cronin said. "He wrote most of it. It became a binder and helped create other tours that we've done."

Recently, Boothe and his wife commissioned a painting by Harry Devlin of the Westfield Municipal Building. The Boothes have donated the painting to the historical society.

His last major project for the historical society was the creation of a burma shave of the town's history. Boothe took his knowledge of town history to create signs depicting the town history from the colonial days to the 21st century put together in order. The burma shave made it's debut at the historical society's Applefest in October.

Dedicated Public Servant

Boothe's public service was most predominant during the 1980s and 1990s when he served in elective office, but he first entered the local government scene in the 1970s when he was appointed to the board which created the first senior citizen housing complex in town. Boothe became the president of the Westfield Senior Housing Corporation, where he oversaw the planning and construction of the town's first senior housing complex. During the 1990s, while a councilman and mayor, he chaired the committee which planned and constructed the second phase of senior housing in town.

While Boothe is remembered for his work on the senior housing complexes, he said to many people that his biggest accomplishment was the preservation of downtown Westfield. While serving as mayor he led the town in moving from the Main Street Westfield concept to the special improvement district and the SID's management corporation, the Downtown Westfield Corporation.

"That was one of his great legacies," said former Councilman Neil Sullivan, who served alongside Boothe.

Sullivan recalled that the downtown issue was contentious at the time between residents and downtown business owners. He noted that Boothe was able to guide the legislation to unanimous passage.

"His leadership style allowed each Council member an opportunity and each member of the public the chance to comment to create a good piece of legislation," Sullivan said.

Cronin said Boothe's devotion to the downtown continued past his creation of the DWC and the downtown history tours he created. Earlier this year during the rededication of the Rialto, she reached out to Boothe to participate in the ceremony. During the ceremony, he showed up in an old downtown Westfield baseball cap, which he treasured. It was a cap that Cronin had seen many times, one which she suggested he replace with a newer cap. Cronin gave the former mayor several new caps over the years, but he kept wearing the old cap to events, saying he liked it best. A few weeks ago, Cronin was at Boothe's house and saw all the new hats lined up with the familar, well worn old hat.

During his time as a councilman, Boothe played a key role in leading the "Stop the Mall" campaign. In this role, he helped led the effort to block the construction of a mall on Route 22 in Springfield, which he believed would have permanently hurt Westfield's downtown.

Boothe's famous energy was on display during his stint in the mayor's chair. Sullivan recalled how Boothe took on a mayoral task that many mayors delegate, serving on the planning board. While state law gives the mayor a planning board seat, many in Westfield and around the state make use of the prevision that allows for the mayor to send a representative. Boothe took on the task, which included sitting through the lengthy ShopRite hearings in the 1990s.

"He really devoted himself to the town," Sullivan said. "He did a lot of substantive things and not just ceremonial."

Sullivan said one thing that stuck out about Boothe's tenure as mayor was his skills at governing and trying to remain non political in his decision making. This included to not making appointments based on political affiliation.

"I always joked that he was an excellent mayor and not as good a politician, which is a lot better than the other way around," Sullivan said. "He did not care if you were a Republican, Democrat or independent, he appointed the right person for the job."

Boothe was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Town Council in September of 1980 and was elected to his first term that November. Reelected five times, Boothe held many positions during his tenure as a councilman. According to published reports in The Westfield Leader and Westfield Record Press, available online at the Westfield Memorial Library's website, Boothe chaired or was a member of the solid waste, public safety, public works, laws and rules and parking, traffic and transportation committees while in office. He served several terms as acting mayor in the administrations of Mayors Ron Stone and Rich Bagger and was the Council's member of the planning board. He served as chairman of the Union County Solid Waste Advisory Board and as a commissioner of the Union County Utility Authority.

Boothe was appointed mayor by the Council in January 1992 following Bagger's resignation to become a state assemblyman. He was unopposed in his bid for a full term in 1992 and defeated Councilman Tony LaPorta in 1994 for a second term. At the time the mayor served a two year term. Boothe followed local tradition and did not seek a third term in 1996, when he made history by becoming the first Republican mayor to turn the office over to a Democrat.

Following his time in the mayor's office, Boothe served in a part time state position which combined his love of history with public service. He was appointed by then State Senate President Donald DiFrancesco (R-Scotch Plains) to serve as a member of the New Jersey Commemorative Coin Commission. This commission was charged under state and federal law with developing New Jersey's official quarter issued as part of the U.S. Mint's state quarter program in the late 1990s. Boothe and his fellow commissioners developed a coin which placed George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on the official state quarter.

In addition to his well known work with the historical society and in local government, Boothe was involved with other organizations over the years. He was a director and president of Youth and Family Counseling Services, the major league director of Westfield Baseball, a member of the Jaycees and a lay reader and usher at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. According to many his biggest passion was Habitat for Humanity, where he helped build homes throughout the area and assisted on projects in other parts of the country as well.

Westfield's current mayor fondly remembered his predecessor.

"We lost a great statesman," Mayor Andy Skibitsky said. "He was a statesman in every sense of the word. He continued to work for Westfield ever since he left elective office."

Skibitsky said Boothe will be honored at tonight's Town Council meeting in a brief ceremony. He said plans were still being put together for what the Council would do to honor the former mayor.

A Mentor to Up and Coming Community Leaders

Cronin is well known today for her leadership of the downtown, but she likes to note that would never have happened if it wasn't for Boothe. When Cronin was a new resident, she had been reading about the contention over the creation of the special improvement district and decided to go to a town hall meeting Boothe organized on the issue in February of 1996 to learn more. Coming out of the meeting, Cronin had both met Boothe and learned what she wanted to know.

"I learned more about the SID and applied to be on the board as a resident member and I was denied by Bud to be on the board," she said.

But, while Boothe had decided not appoint Cronin to the DWC board, he sent her a handwritten note encouraging her to join one of the board's committees, which she did becoming a member of the design committee, then joining the board before being named executive director.

"Because of Bud's personal hand written note, which I treasure, he encouraged me to become involved with the DWC," Cronin said. "I have never imagined that I would become the executive director.

Boothe's encouragement of Cronin to become involved in downtown affairs is not the only time he served as a mentor to an up and coming leader in Westfield. Sullivan recalls Boothe was a driving force behind his political career. Between Bagger and Boothe, Sullivan came to be appointed to the town's Board of Adjustment before Boothe encouraged him to join the Council when he was approached about filling an open seat.

On the Council, Sullivan regarded Boothe as a mentor in how to serve the town and looked to the veteran for guidance early on. Sullivan's first years on the Council were at the same time as Boothe's final years in town government.

"I very much looked to him for guidance and how to do things well on Council," he said.

When Boothe left, the change of party affiliation was not the only difference in going to Jardim. Jardim, then 30, was young enough to be Boothe's son. The former mayor said his predecessor treated him well and remembers a memorable moment from the day he took office. Jardim, his 29-year old wife and 24-year old brother-in-law went to the mayor's office to look around. While in the office, his brother-in-law asked the new mayor if he could try out the mayor's chair, which Jardim allowed. Taking the chair, the town's new first brother-in-law put his feet up on the desk and settled in.

Just at that moment, Boothe came into the wood paneled office overlooking Mindowaskin Park, stunning Jardim and his guests and leaving Jardim's brother-in-law scrambling to get his feet off the mayor's desk and out of the mayor's chair. Boothe had simply come in to pick up a file folder he had left in his old office.

"My brother-in-law was embarassed and I was embarassed because we felt like kids in a candy store and Bud was totally gracious," Jardim said of the time.

Jardim noted that Boothe provided him with plenty of advice based on his 16 years in local government during the transition period. He said he kept the advice to heart during his four year tenure as the town's chief executive.

"He reminded me of things like don't get caught up in the day to day hysteria of an issue but to look at the long term perspective," he said. "He told me the basics of how to do the job."

Family Man, Veteran, Loyal Princeton Alum

Garland "Bud" Boothe, Jr. was born in New York City in 1933, moving to Scotch Plains as a child, eventually graduating from Scotch Plains High School. He attended Princeton University, majoring in history and graduating in 1954. Boothe served in the peacetime Army as a lieutenant based in Silver Spring, MD in the 1950s, before attending Harvard Law School and graduating in 1959. Following graduation, he settled in Westfield in 1959.

Professionally, Boothe was an attorney focusing on intellectual property, copyright and patent law. During his career he worked for the law firms of McCarter and English, and Nicholas, Thomson and Peck and headed the copyright and patent department for the American Cyanamid Corporation.

He married his wife, Gaile, 53 years ago and they raised three children in town. In addition to his wife, Boothe is survived by his three children, Nancy Dayton, Gary Boothe and Douglas Boothe; three children-in-law, Jon Dayton, Samantha Boothe and Elizabeth Boothe and nine grandchildren.

Boothe remained commited to his alma mater. While a student he had served as the managing editor of The Daily Princetonian, the university's student run newspaper. As an alum, he served for five years as the secretary of the Class of 1954, where one of his duties was to write class updates for the alumni magazine. In a letter to the The Daily Princetonian in 2006, he talked briefly about one of his classmates, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

His friends and colleagues fondly remembered his love for his family and hobbies. He was passionate about studying the history of the Revolution, along with collecting unique items for Westfield. He assembled a collection of prints and ornaments about Westfield. He also enjoyed the Shore and tennis.

Gaile Boothe believes her husband will be remembered for his passion and dedication to the town he presided over for five years.

"He loved Westfield," Mrs. Boothe said. "There was nothing he wouldn't do for Westfield."