MILLTOWN — The borough park has been renamed “Gloria Bradford Park” in honor of the borough’s first female mayor and longest serving mayor.
“I am overwhelmed and honored,” said Bradford. “Milltown has always been a special place for me.”
The Borough Council voted in favor of a resolution renaming the 11.4-acre park located on Violet Terrace and JFK Boulevard after the former mayor at a council meeting on Aug. 24.
The park is the largest park in the borough and is home to the community pool.
Bradford, 80, a lifelong resident of Milltown, served as mayor for 13 years from 1998 to 2011. She first ran for a seat on the Borough Council in the late 1960s at a time when it was generally unheard of for a woman to hold office.
Bradford recalled in an interview that as she exited office, she had run with a man at the time on the GOP ticket and the Democratic Party had a man and a woman on its ticket as their opponents.
“Voters actually crossed party lines to vote for the two men,” Bradford said.
Randi Riley, vice chairperson of the Milltown Republican Organization, said Bradford’s stories of how men and even women treated her then for running for office would be viewed as discrimination and harassment by today’s standards
“Gloria never gave up on believing that women should have a role in government and was a pioneer for women’s rights in Milltown,” she said.
“She later became the first woman elected to Borough Council, the first woman elected mayor and the longest serving mayor in borough history.”
In 1997, Bradford was elected to the Borough Council. The next year, mayor Raymond Graulich passed away after only a year in office. Bradford was appointed mayor in his place, ran, and won reelection every four years thereafter until she left office.
Bradford said she heard that the idea to rename the park after her was presented to the council by the Milltown Senior Citizens Club led by President Bob Skarzynski.
Riley said she sent a letter to Skarzynski and the members of the Senior Citizens Club thanking them for their request.
“Gloria is an inspiration to women and because of her sacrifices and accomplishments, women today have opportunities generations before never had,” she said.
“Today women run political parties and are elected to local, county, state and federal offices. I do not need to look in a history book and find a woman who made a difference, I am proud to say we have that here in Milltown.”