In 1939, when his mother was on the verge of losing the family home to foreclosure, Nelson Howard Elwell went to Ethiopia to work for Douglas Aircraft. For four years, Elwell worked in the East African nation guarding British military equipment from German forces.
“This was during the Depression,” his eldest son, former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, said last week. “He went to Ethiopia to earn money to send to his mother to pay that mortgage off.”
His mother kept the home, the mortgage was paid off, and today the Elwell family still lives on the land he saved from foreclosure.
“He impressed upon me the realities of politics.” – Dennis Elwell
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Last week, the Elwell patriarch, known to everyone in the community as Howie, passed away at the age of 95, leaving behind his close-knit clan.
Coming home
Howie Elwell returned from Ethiopia in 1943 and was almost immediately drafted into the U.S. Army. During World War II he served in Italy and was honorably discharged in 1946 after the war ended.
The same year he went to work for Douglas Aircraft, 1939, Howie Elwell married his wife, Fernanda. The two were married for 68 years until Fernanda died in 2007. The couple eventually had four sons: Dennis, Lester, Roger, and Warren. Roger died about five years ago.
When he returned to Secaucus after the war, Elwell became a truck driver and would ultimately start a trucking company, NHE Leasing, which his sons later took over.
“Howie was quite a guy, very charismatic,” recalled Mayor Richard Steffens last week. “Back in the ’50s there was no salt when it snowed. They used ashes and our DPW trucks had running boards. And anytime it snowed, Howie would be out there on the running boards spreading ash over the snow.”
Political life
In 1956 Elwell was elected to the Secaucus Town Council as a 2nd Ward Town Councilman, a seat he held for 13 years.
As part of the administration of former Secaucus Mayor James F. Moore, Elwell was instrumental in updating and modernizing the town’s previous library, which was located in the Plaza Center.
Howie, who was first elected when Dennis was in the fourth grade, paved a political path that his son later followed. The younger Elwell served several years as a 2nd Ward councilman before being elected mayor, and he was the driving force behind the construction of the current town library on Paterson Plank Road.
After leaving the Town Council, Howie Elwell served as a Secaucus Municipal Utilities Authority (SMUA) commissioner. There, he became one of the people responsible for uncovering a massive bid-rigging and kickback scheme.
Ironically, his son Dennis – who is currently embroiled in his own political scandal – credits his father’s work during the SMUA controversy for convincing him to enter politics.
“He impressed upon me the realities of politics: You make friends. You have political enemies,” said the former mayor. “He told me you can’t let certain things bother you. You’re going to have people who speak against you. But you have to keep moving ahead with what you think is right.”
Final days
Earlier this year, the elder Elwell, who suffered from emphysema, began having trouble breathing. Then, in June, he was diagnosed with a tumor in one of his lungs. His last days were difficult, according to family members.
“At that point, the doctors didn’t think, and we didn’t think, an operation was appropriate,” Dennis Elwell said. “He was 94 years old, going on 95. So, he spent his remaining time at home. The last three months he was in quite a bit of pain.”
He was put on morphine to deal with the pain and around Labor Day he moved in with Dennis and his wife Annette, who lived next door.
He finally passed away Sunday, Nov. 8 at midnight.
“He was a very big part of my life,” his son said. “We lived almost next door to each other almost all our lives. He taught me many things that I think about every day.”
Elwell is survived by three of his four sons, Dennis, Lester, and Warren. He is also survived by two grandchildren, Jason and Alexis, and two great-grandchildren, Ella and Cole.
His brother Russell, son Roger, and grandson Travis all passed away before him.
Funeral services for Elwell were held Wednesday.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.