Friends recall an activist

Gene Glazer, 82, a longtime Kendall Park resident and noted peace and labor activist, died Aug. 7.

By: Paul Koepp
   A fighter who was passionate about his beliefs, Gene Glazer left an imprint on everyone who knew him, said friends and relatives who shared memories of him this week.
   Mr. Glazer, 82, a longtime Kendall Park resident and noted peace and labor activist, died Aug. 7 in Boulder, Colo., after a short illness.
   Nancy Winkler met Mr. Glazer about 50 years ago when they were neighbors in Pine Grove Manor, a co-op in Franklin Township. She said that in all the years she knew him, "he was never unkind."
   "This was a phenomenal guy who lived right up until the last minute," Ms. Winkler said Monday. "He was a man of deep convictions and he was willing to work within those convictions. He was not afraid to be out there on his own."
   Mr. Glazer and his wife of 56 years, Alice, moved to Boulder about a year ago. Their son, Barry, said the family has been overwhelmed by condolence messages from people who became acquainted with the couple in that short period of time, when Mr. Glazer was organizing demonstrations against the war in Iraq.
   "It was amazing how quickly he made a name for himself," Barry Glazer said Monday. "At age 82, he was out there picketing Army recruiting offices by himself. Working men and women and service men and women have lost a champion."
   Born in Liberty, N.Y., on Sept. 18, 1924, Mr. Glazer served as a medic during World War II in combat zones in France and Belgium. After the war, he worked as a store manager at E.J. Korvette in North Brunswick and served as a spokesman for the Epilepsy Foundation.
   His lifelong commitment to social justice and political accountability included a stint on the South Brunswick Board of Education in the 1970s. In addition, Barry Glazer said his father marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in West Virginia in support of coal miners involved in a labor dispute.
   Mr. Glazer was an activist for workers’ rights, veterans affairs and social reform, writing countless letters to local media on local and national issues, especially those affecting service men and women.
   He was active in the labor movement, serving as shop steward and executive board member for the CWA Local 1033. He also worked for political causes like the anti-apartheid movement and the Rainbow Coalition, and protested the American involvement in the Vietnam War.
   Mr. Glazer moved to Bloomfield in 2000, where he served on the national board of directors of Veterans for Peace. He was honored this spring when the organization named its Jersey City chapter after him.
   Rob Stolzer, who was a neighbor of the Glazers while growing up in Kendall Park, said he felt blessed to know them.
   "My world was certainly expanded by their ideas and passions."
   He visited the Glazers in Boulder in July and was impressed by Mr. Glazer’s vigor.
   "He went out fighting," Mr. Stolzer said.
   Mr. Glazer is survived by his wife, Alice, and daughter, Dara, both of Boulder, Colo.; and his son, Barry, and grandson, Alexandros, of Kendall Park.
   The family has asked that donations be made in his honor to Veterans for Peace.