Al Rinn wanted to meet with a reporter at the Miss America Diner on West Side Avenue in Jersey City on a recent afternoon to get something off his chest.
“Take a look at the New Jersey side of Ellis Island, and you’ll see it is so underdeveloped,” Rinn said. “It’s a shame when you consider that Jersey City is supplying the water, electricity, fire and medical services.”
Rinn hopes if a reporter starts asking when the Garden State’s section of this historic island will see the kind of resurgence the New York side has undergone over the years, it will make a good story.
And it probably will – in the near future.
“I like dealing with the public and helping people.” – Al Rinn
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Rinn at first brushes off that notion. He prefers that Ellis Island be the subject. However, he makes it difficult to focus on anything else when he offers the opportunity to answer any questions about Jersey City history, and intones his signature line during an hour-plus conversation: “I could tell you stories.”
A life in public service
Any stories from Al Rinn would have to start with the man himself.
It’s hard not to garner attention when you are still on the job: 30 years as an inspector for the New Jersey Division of Taxation. Al Rinn is known as the oldest employee in New Jersey government. And his long tenure for the state is a continuation of a career in public service that started in 1947 when he joined the Jersey City Police Department.
And before he was a civilian, he served in the U.S. Marines in World War II in the Pacific campaign, including fighting in the fierce battle of Iwo Jima.
When he came back home from the war, he fought another battle as a young cop who decided to support John V. Kenny, a family friend, when Kenny ran in the famous 1949 mayoral election that he eventually won against Frank Eggers, nephew of the legendary political boss Frank “I am the Law” Hague. Rinn’s disloyalty to “the Organization” did not go unpunished.
“I ended up having to do midnight patrol duty, walking, by the old Roosevelt Stadium,” Rinn said. “But it didn’t bother me.”
As to why he continues to work rather than take it easy, Rinn gave the answer of the consummate public servant.
“I like dealing with the public and helping people,” Rinn said.
And his public service ethos has left a legacy of its own amongst his five children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Take his daughter Datina, named the first female captain in the history of the Jersey City Police Department in 2002, and his grandson Chris, director of the Emergency Medical Squad at Jersey City Medical Center.
Also, it didn’t go unnoticed by the City of Jersey City. The City Council honored him in April with a resolution and a presentation of the American flag by a United States Marine.
Recalling a life
Al Rinn was a young cop working for the Pennsylvania Railroad in the late 1940s when he encountered on a regular basis a kid gathering pieces of coal to keep his home warm.
“He was the nicest kid and soon we would become friends, and it would stay that way for many years afterward,” Rinn said.
Rinn would see him grow up and become a teacher. Franklin Williams would move up the ranks of the Jersey City school system and become the superintendent of schools. Williams died in June, but not before achieving the high honor of having Middle School 7 in the Jersey City Heights named after him.
Other names and stories started spouting from Rinn’s memory.
The late Thomas F.X. Smith, the former mayor of Jersey City, was his good friend “Tommy,” with whom he played basketball while they were growing up. The infamous bookie Joseph “Newsboy” Moriarty was a “recluse” and “stingy” but always had the big money to help pay off debts incurred by other bookies.
And there was the time when he had to clear out the guys who hung out in front of downtown Jersey City social club because they upset the pretty girls who would walk past.
“I know those guys pretty well, and they would resist some cop giving them orders, so I had to approach them with a certain strategy,” Rinn said. “So I went by the club, saw the guys and told them that the Feds were in town. They were gone in no time.”
Rinn had a good laugh, finished his coffee and soon was on his way home to check in with his wife of more than 60 years, Josephine.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.