BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer
SCOTT PILLING staff Freehold Township police Lt. Robert Brightman (c) joins Loretta Kuhnert, the new president of the Western Monmouth Chamber of Commerce, and Arthur Kondrup, the chamber’s outgoing president, at Kondrup’s Dec. 6 retirement party. FREEHOLD — A man who spent years making a living connecting people in business with their counterparts will now have the opportunity to reconnect with himself and his family.
Arthur Kondrup, of Freehold Township, will step down on Jan. 1 from his position as president of the Western Monmouth Chamber of Commerce after heading the organization for the past eight years.
Loretta Kuhnert, of Freehold Township, who now serves the chamber as vice president, will become the chamber’s new president.
Kondrup, a former member of the Township Committee in Freehold Township who served as mayor five times, has been a well-known face in the area for years because of the positions he has held in his personal and professional life.
Whether it is his unmistakable voice, his days as mayor, his time spent as lector at St. Rose of Lima Church, or the efforts he has made as a member of community and civic boards, most people in the Freehold area know or know of Arthur Kondrup.
A retirement dinner in Kondrup’s honor was held at the Courtyard on Main, Freehold Borough, on Dec. 6. At that time, Kuhnert’s appointment as his successor was announced.
Kuhnert, who has worked at the chamber for the same length of time as Kondrup, spent more than 20 years in the retail business working for Steinbach. She said she started working part-time in the personnel department and worked her way up to corporate training manager.
She said she will miss Kondrup, who she said is well-known and renowned in his community.
“It was a lot of fun working with him and he will be missed,” Kuhnert said.
As for the future of the chamber, Kuhnert said she wants to continue the vision of growth that is currently in place.
“I want us to be the ‘go to’ organization for all our clients’ issues and needs. I want to know what they want. We need to understand the current market and more or less be able to walk in their shoes,” she said. “Times are changing and the chamber must keep up with those changing times in order to be the premier business resource for them.”
Kuhnert said she looks forward to expanding regional relations with other chambers and working toward acquiring more media contacts.
If anyone had any doubts as to what Kondrup has accomplished in his 59 professional years, one glance at his office walls would remind them. Numerous plaques and certificates line more than one wall in the office that has served as Kondrup’s home base at the chamber offices on Throckmorton Street.
More awards in the form of glassware, brass and wood are sprinkled around the coffee table and on other furniture pieces in his comfortable office. More than just echoing who he is, these documents and pieces show what others think of him. Community, civic and state agencies are all represented in one form or another.
Kondrup gives credit to almost anyone else before he takes it for himself.
“Many of the ideas I’ve used at the chamber or in other places are usually someone else’s,” he said with humor. “And I always tell people that, too. If you see it here and you think it’s yours, give yourself credit and be proud — it probably is,” he laughed.
Kondrup was born in Jersey City and graduated from Seton Hall University, where he majored in industrial management, and then received an MBA from New York University with a major in corporate finance.
He has been married to his wife, Patricia, for 46 years. The couple have five children, Diane, Maureen, Teresa, A. Michael and Stephen. They have six grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.
Kondrup has served in numerous capacities in his community. He served on the Freehold Township governing body for 14 years until he left to accept a position with the state of New Jersey. He served on numerous boards and agencies, including 14 years on the Freehold Township Planning Board and 14 years as the chairman of Freehold Township’s Master Plan Committee.
Kondrup has also represented the township on the state level as a member of the Executive Committee of the New Jersey League of Municipalities.
He served for 18 years as a member of the board of trustees of CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township, including one term as chairman of the board during a major restructuring. He serves as chairman of the Advisory Council.
Kondrup was appointed by Gov. Thomas Kean as the first chairman of the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing and was assigned the task of implementing the Fair Housing Act legislation.
He also served as state director of housing, and completed his state career as assistant commissioner in the Department of Environmental Protection and as a member of the State Planning Commission.
In his private business career, Kondrup was a member of a five-person team that installed data processing in The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey during his 13 years with that organization. He was also vice president of general services during a 14-year career with McGraw-Hill Cos. and served as executive vice president for Saker Enterprises and as regional vice president for Wilmorite, a commercial real estate company.
Kondrup is a people person and it shows in his work. Getting people to meet one another is one of the functions of the chamber.
“You get what you give,” he said. “Business owners learn that they will be better off if they meet and interact with other chamber members and other organizations.”
Helping local businesses to get off the ground and helping to keep them thriving are the functions of a chamber of commerce, and that is where Kondrup has placed his efforts over the past eight years.
He has encouraged those in business to devote some time to the organization because, in his words, “You get what you put in.”
He said many business owners do not realize the impact joining the chamber can have.
“You can go from not knowing anyone the first year you open to knowing almost everyone in the area in business the second year. Knowing the people in your community is a good thing and gives you the advantage,” Kondrup said, adding that the best advantage he had was to bring people together in the chamber.
Whether it is being in the right place at the right time or because of his persuasive nature, Kondrup managed to get the Kaboom Park on Liberty Street, Freehold Borough, built. Through a chance conversation with the chamber’s insurance salesman, the borough managed to get a park that was built by volunteers in one day. Kondrup said the salesman, Gary Rygiel, told him that his company had to build a park in New Jersey but he did not know where to do it.
“You do now!” Kondrup said he told Rygiel.
“This is one of the great memories at the chamber, having the park built and watching over 300 volunteers that came to help,” he said.
Jayne Carr, who is the executive director of the Freehold Center Partnership, has worked in the same building with Kondrup for years. The two work together and are also friends. Carr said she will miss Kondrup’s sense of humor and of course his presence in the office.
In an effort to make clear just how many boards and committees Kondrup has served on, Carr jokingly said she is positive he “was on the first committee that planned the Garden of Eden.”
Kondrup and his wife are planning to spend some leisure time in North Carolina. He will enjoy time on the boat docked outside his home on the water and work on the stamp collection he has had for years. He said he will spend more time with his family, but will still be actively involved with his community, will still work with CentraState, and plans to work as a consultant when he chooses to.