JERSEY CITY – The longest serving councilman in Jersey City and former chief of staff to the county executive’s office, Bill Gaughan, passed away in his home on Oct. 19.
Gaughan was elected to the Jersey City Council in 1993 and served five terms under mayors Bret Schundler, Glenn D. Cunningham and Jerramiah Healy.
He declined to run for reelection in 2013, but remained as chief of staff to Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise until 2015.
Gaughan was a one-time amateur boxer and ran the Houghton Funeral Home before being elected to the council. He was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. He reportedly died at his home at St. John’s apartments at about 9 p.m.
Jaime Vazquez, who represented Ward E for four terms starting in 1985, died on Thursday at the age of 67, making Gaughan the second former Jersey City councilman to die in the past week.
In June 2015, the “100 steps” stairway, a project 20 years in the making that offers a direct route from the Heights to Hoboken, was renamed Bill Gaughan Way at a ceremony where the former councilman was celebrated by city officials past and present.
In April he retired after 14 years as the county’s chief of staff.
Gaughan’s daughter Eileen died on Aug. 18, 2015 after she was struck by a car in Wall Township.
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
