When the city of Bayonne hired his public relations firm last year, Maurice Fitzgibbons said he was thrilled – not just because he got another government contract, but because he really loves Bayonne.
“Bayonne has some really good people and I’ve admired the leadership there, not just Mayor Mark Smith, but all the way back,” he said at the time. “Mayor [Dennis] Collins was a very special mayor, and I like coming to work in a town that he helped build.”
Fitzgibbons died on Dec. 18 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where he was surrounded by his family.
“I will always remember him as a man with a thousand ideas and someone with a very great heart.” – Albio Sires
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“He worked for me in West New York as director of the UEZ,” said Rep. Albio Sires, referring to a time when Sires served as mayor of West New York. “He did all our promotions, and this time of year, he always did our tree-lighting ceremony.”
Sires said Fitzgibbons came from a different political era.
“I will always remember him as a man with a thousand ideas and someone with a very great heart,” Sires said.
Long before Fitzgibbons first ran for Hudson County freeholder, he was deeply involved in local politics. His leaving the freeholder board on Jan. 1 marked the end of an era.
A Hoboken native, Fitzgibbons worked in government for two decades before he decided finally to run for freeholder in 1993.
Fitzgibbons was Hoboken’s recreation director at age 20, and was Democratic municipal chairman twice – from 1994 to 1998 – and then again in 2008.
Elected a committee person in 1981, Fitzgibbons served on the Ward 5 Democratic Committee, one of six in Hudson County.
Fitzgibbon is proud to have been one of the 12 original members of the “Coffee Group” that in 1985 began a movement that eventually led to the election of Jim Florio as governor.
Fitzgibbons later became the state commissioner of ethnic affairs after Florio was elected in 1989. He also worked as a special assistant for constituent affairs in the governor’s Newark office. As the administrator of the Cultural and Heritage Affairs Commission in Hudson County, he worked to increase tourism here.
A strong proponent of the arts
A graduate of what was then Jersey City State College, Fitzgibbons majored in English and theater, and over the years has been a strong proponent of the arts. He envisioned a future as an actor after graduation, and for several years was involved with the Roundabout Theater in New York and was coached by actress Julie Bovasso.
For this reason, he had a soft spot in his heart for the arts, and, indeed, one of his great disappointments as freeholder was the inability to get a high school of the arts established. As chairperson of the board in 1997, he tried hard to establish the Hudson County High School for the Performing Arts, to be housed in the Demarest School in Hoboken (the school Frank Sinatra attended).
Over the years, he also served as a trustee at the Jersey City Performing Arts Center in the Loew’s Theater in Jersey City. As a public relations specialist, he continued to serve as publicity chairman for Hoboken’s annual St. Ann’s Italian Festival.
“I really wanted a school for the arts, but I never got the political support I needed,” he said.
While the arts high school did not materialize, Fitzgibbons believes he played a critical role in developing other county institutions during his four terms in office – including the purchase and reconstruction of a new county administrative office building; the upgrades to Hudson County Community College, including the construction and opening of a North Hudson facility and the promotion and expansion of the college’s culinary arts programs; the historic recognition of Hudson County as a capital of the embroidery trades; the funding of the Hoboken Museum; funding for the restoration of the Hoboken YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club; and improvements to Columbus Park and the pending reconstruction of the 14th Street viaduct.
Falling out with HCDO
The son of the late Hoboken Firefighters Union Official Michael Fitzgibbons, Maurice lost the support of the Hudson County Democratic Organization in 2008 after he scrambled to survive a Democratic Party political civil war. However, he said he wasn’t forced out of office, but left his seat on his own to pursue his personal business interests.
During a past talk over lunch with The Hudson Reporter, he mentioned the remarkable parade of political figures he had the pleasure to meet and work with over the years, from the legendary Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O’Neill to the biggest name in contemporary politics, Pres. Barack Obama.
He rubbed shoulders with Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Senator Bob Menendez so often, he saw them as political friends. For years, he had a strong relationship with former state Sen. Bernard Kenny, one of the statesmen of Hudson County politics.
“Jimmy Farina (the longtime Hoboken city clerk and Young Dems leader) was one of my mentors,” Fitzgibbons said.
Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner called Fitzgibbons “unique.”
“I’ve known him for more than 25 years, and he was nothing less than interesting,” Turner said. “Everybody had a million stories about him. But whenever he had a meeting, he always brought bread or pound cake. He was a political and public relations fixture in Hudson County.”
Turner said you might have an argument with Fitzgibbons one day, then have lunch with him the next day.
“He was always looking forward and never let anything get personal or hostile,” Turner said.