Hegner departs Township Committee as marriage and world travel lay in wait.
By: David Campbell
Former Princeton Township Committeewoman Casey Hegener has her sights set on the far side of the world, but her priorities are firmly grounded in the township.
On Sunday, the outspoken former committeewoman’s seat on the all-Democratic governing body was filled when Lance Liverman was formally sworn in for his first three-year term. She served one term on the committee.
But Ms. Hegener, who was in attendance for the annual reorganization meeting last weekend, will continue to have her say in local government, though in an advisory capacity from here on out. She was appointed by the Township Committee to fill a vacancy on the Princeton Environmental Commission.
Ms. Hegener was elected to the five-member Township Committee in 2001. She and running mate Mayor Phyllis Marchand beat back challenges by Republican and Green Party candidates.
In March, the Ober Road resident announced that she would not seek a second term on the committee. She said at the time that she decided against running again in order to devote more time to her family, notably her daughter, attorney Holly Hegener, and her four grandchildren, who had moved back to New Jersey after living in South Africa.
And now, Ms. Hegener’s family is growing further.
She plans in June to marry Samuel W. Lambert III, former president of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.
The honeymoon the couple is planning promises to be but a taste of things to come where world travel is concerned. They plan to spend three weeks in Italy, which will include stays in Florence, Rome and Venice.
That’s just the beginning for the two, who are planning to spend a good portion of their newly married life together traveling the world. Destinations, Ms. Hegener said this week, include "the far reaches" of Russia, Mongolia, New Zealand and Patagonia.
"I absolutely can’t wait," she said.
But given that the environmental commission meets once a month, Ms. Hegener no doubt will be returning to the States to tend to local environmental issues in Princeton.
Ms. Hegener and her former husband are the founders of Peterson’s Guides. They started the company in Princeton in 1965 as the first comprehensive source for graduate programs across the country. Before Peterson’s, prospective graduate students relied largely on referrals from their professors to find the right school.
Ms. Hegener helped build the company into a corporation that today, according to Peterson’s Web site, provides an estimated 105 million people annually with information about colleges and universities, career schools and graduate programs, as well as offering a host of other products and services.
She retired in 2000 after selling the company to publishing giant Thompson Publishing Group, and after learning that then-Township Committeewoman Roz Denard would be leaving the committee, Ms. Hegener decided to run for local office herself.
It wasn’t her first experience in local affairs. She was a member of the commission that weighed consolidation of the township and Princeton Borough, and helped create the independent planning group Princeton Future.
"I thought it would be interesting to learn how government worked," Ms. Hegener said of her decision to run for a seat on the committee. "I got immersed. I found it absolutely fascinating."
Over the three years she was a member, she said she has seen the committee become much more strategic in the way it looks after the township’s long-term interests.
"I’m pleased with my colleagues," Ms. Hegener added. "We really are now quite strategic. It’s a great credit to everyone on Township Committee. And I’m very pleased to have been a part of it."

