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LAMBERTVILLE: Quiet contributor Jason Fuhr will be remembered

He made his mark at town, school and sporting events

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
   Friends remember Jason Fuhr, who passed away Feb. 17 at age 80, as a friendly man who was always doing things for other people, but on the quiet side.
   ”He was just a really good guy,” Lambertville Mayor David DelVecchio said. “There are people in every community who are kind of ‘the glue’ of that community, who really help hold it together. The thing about Jason was that he always had a positive attitude. I’m sure he had his troubles, like we all do, but he never laid them on anybody.”
   Born in Lambertville, Mr. Fuhr had lived in West Amwell since 1960. A graduate of Lambertville High School and the Philadelphia Barber Institute, he was a licensed barber in Lambertville, where he served his apprenticeship with the late Gus Librizzi, who died last year.
   ”Jason was friendly, but quiet,” said Lambertville resident Robin Boyle. “His wake had many hundreds of people attending it, and his funeral the next day was amazing. So many people got up and told the most incredible stories of his acts of kindness.”
   Ms. Boyle said that for years, Messrs. Fuhr and Librizzi, who became good friends, would meet another good friend, Michael “Mingle” Welsh, on Sunday mornings at the corner of Union and Bridge streets.
   ”They would get together there to talk for awhile and they just waved and said hello to everybody. Between the three of them, they seemed to know everybody who went by,” she said.
   After Mr. Librizzi died, Ms. Boyle raised $800 for a bench at the corner of Bridge and Union.
   ”It was the easiest $800 to raise,” she said. “Gus’s name is on the bench now. I’m going to raise money to have Jason’s name put on it as well. He was involved in so many worthwhile things.”
   Mr. Fuhr, who cut hair on a full-time or part-time basis for 50 years, retired from Educational Testing Services in 1999 after 30 years. He was the supervisor of the paint shop at its Princeton facility.
   He started the Jason Fuhr Charity Golf Tournament to support the Lambertville-New Hope Rescue Squad, the Stockton Fire and Ambulance Squad, the Amwell Valley Rescue Squad, the South Hunterdon Municipal Alliance and the Hunterdon Hospice. He was a member of the South Hunterdon Municipal Alliance and was named Volunteer of the Year in 2008 by the New Jersey Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.
   He was a member of the West Amwell Board of Education from 1965 to 1977 and a member of the South Hunterdon Regional High School Board of Education from 1975 to 1999. He was an Army veteran who served during the Korean War.
   Sam Jefferis, who coached South Hunterdon high school’s football team for 40 years (1966 to 2005) knew Mr. Fuhr well.
   ”He helped out wherever he saw a need,” said Mr. Jefferis, whose son Toby now coaches the team. “Jason was a great help to our football team for well over 30 years. He and a fellow named Pickles Cichino took care of all our equipment. For away games, they loaded all that equipment into a pickup truck and carried it to the game for us. Jason took care of the game balls on the sidelines during games.”
   In time, Mr. Jefferis said, Mr. Fuhr became known as The Candy Man.
   ”He always carried root beer barrels and would pass them out to people,” Mr. Jefferis said. “I used to scream and holler at the officials, and then he would sweeten them up with a root beer barrel. He constantly had them and would be giving them out, especially to kids. He loved kids, all kids. The only qualification for Jason to love a kid was for that kid to be a kid.”
   Mr. Jefferis said he couldn’t remember exactly how Jason Fuhr got started helping the football team.
   ”I didn’t ask him to do it,” he said. “It just kind of evolved. It was typical of him to see a need and fill it without being obnoxious about it at all. We were good friends. We saw each other socially as well as with the team. That was a real fine man there.”
   “’”Mr. Welsh said he, Jason and Gus met for years on the corner Sunday mornings for 10 or 15 minutes “to shoot the breeze and say hello to friends.”
   ”I knew him a long time,” he said. “We were good friends, played golf and cards together. He was a very generous guy, and he had this nice quiet way about it. He never made a big deal out of himself, but he would do anything for anybody.”
   Mr. Fuhr was a founder of South Hunterdon Regional High School’s Booster Club. He managed the ETS men’s softball team and led the team to a national championship. In 2012, he was inducted into the Trenton Softball Hall of Fame.
   With his wife, Irma, he started and managed the Girls’ West Amwell Softball League and was a member of the N.J. State Interscholastic Athletic Association.
   Mr. Fuhr was a member of the Stockton Presbyterian Church, where he served as an elder and a deacon.
   ’Jason was the son of the late Jason Grant Fuhr and Bertha Weaver Fuhr.
   He is survived by his wife, Irma Prall Fuhr; his daughter, Kimberly E. Fuhr of Crocker, Mo.; his sisters and his brother-in-law, Ruth Wiebel of Hamptonville, N.C., Mary Weasner of Ashville, Ohio, Betty Gessner of Flemington and Jean and Cyril Anderson of Howe, Ind., and many nieces and nephews.
   Funeral services were held Sunday, Feb. 23, at the First Presbyterian Church of Lambertville.
   Memorial donations in Mr. Fuhr’s memory may be made to the Lambertville-New Hope Rescue Squad, PO Box 237, Lambertville 08530 or to the Stockton Presbyterian Church, 25 S. Main St., Stockton 08559.
   At the South Hunterdon boys’ basketball game on Senior Night on Feb. 20, Mr. Fuhr was honored with a moment of silence that culminated with his signature root beer barrel hard candies being tossed onto the court.
   Senior Devon Troutman said postgame that “having seen Jason a lot from football and basketball the past few years, it was awesome to have honored him tonight. As cliche as it may sound, this game was for him.”