Rae Roeder, 73, passed away December 29, 2017 at the Medical Center of Princeton surrounded by family and close friends.
She was the daughter of Ann Kaufmann and Raymond Clauser and grew up in the Penns neck area of West Windsor Township. She attended West Windsor schools through eighth grade (the highest they went at that time), then graduated from Princeton High School, earned her bachelor’s degree in history and education at Rider University (then Rider College) and her master’s degree in education at East Tennessee State University, where she served as a charter member of the National Teacher Corps, newly established by then President Lyndon Johnson.
She subsequently taught at Woodford County Junior High School in Versailles, KY, the Vail-Deane School in Elizabeth, NJ, and Rutgers Preparatory School in Somerset, NJ. Then, in the 1980s, she began the work for which she became best known: political activism in West Windsor Township and leadership on behalf of the state workers of New Jersey, where she began in the Office of Equal Education Opportunity and continued in the Office of Facilities Planning in the Department of Education as an Educational Program Development Specialist.
Noting that there was no Democratic Committeewoman representing her district, she persuaded her mother and her husband, John, to join her writing in her name on the ballot. She continued to serve as her district Democratic Committeewoman for over two decades, rising to become the Chair of the West Windsor democratic Committee. She also spearheaded a variety of political actions in West Windsor, culminating in the change in West Windsor’s form of government from a partisan township committee to a nonpartisan mayor and council, which began in 1993. For that election she organized a full slate of candidates and became one of the first-elected Councilwomen, an office in which she continued to serve for 10 years. Realizing that West Windsor veterans needed local recognition for their service to country, she persuaded the Council to establish the first Veterans Day ceremony in 1995 and the first Memorial Day parade in 1996.
At the same time, 1996 began another string of elections – as President of Local 1033, Communications Workers of America, a post to which she was re-elected to for five more terms until her retirement in 2012. In 2008 the Mercer County Labor Council honored her as an Outstanding Labor Leader. As President of CWA Local 1033, she was known not only for tirelessly representing workers and protecting their jobs and pension fund but also for championing equal rights for women. She was also a dedicated member of the Lions Club of West Windsor.
Family meant a great deal to her, and she was especially devoted to her parents and younger brother, Willie, all of whom predeceased her. She was also devoted to her three nephews, Justin, Andre and Austin, who survive her. She is also survived by her best friend and care giver, Russell Caffey, and her husband of nearly 50 years, John.
Services were held on Thursday, January 4, 2018 at Kimble Funeral Home, 1 Hamilton Avenue, Princeton, NJ followed by burial in the Princeton Baptist Church Cemetery immediately following the service.
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