“Well, it takes all kinds of men to build a railroad.” 

“No sir, just us Irish.” -Anonymous 

The Irish American high holy days are fast approaching and one of the statewide celebrations is Nutley’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It’s scheduled for this coming Saturday on Franklin Avenue, the township’s main thoroughfare. 

Nutley is a somewhat timeless place. It’s a well-managed, northern Essex County suburb, ironically an Italian-American enclave of sorts. Annie Oakley is featured on a mural in the local Post Office. Martha Stewart famously grew up and went to school there.  

It has good schools, premier housing stock and a whole lot of attractive features making it a nice place to live and to raise a family.  

But, its Irish parade always calls to mind one of its legendary community leaders, namely John V. Kelly, who, in large part, was personally responsible for the township’s now 41st annual celebration, its pageantry and its success. 

For many years, Kelly, a Republican Assemblyman and the Parade’s General Chairman, could be seen standing on the steps of the old Nutley Savings & Loan Building, the site of the review stand for the parade.  

As bagpipes skirled, Kelly, trussed up in top hat and tails, would lean forward, usually against a biting March wind, and review the marchers and the bands.  

In his by gone era, those that passed by were his people and a good many of them came just for him. Never was a man more proud of his surroundings.   

Originally from Jersey City, Kelly always had a soft spot for the rascals and characters that came from there. John was one of them. He was brash, witty and kind to a fault.  

“Remember, take care of your family,” he would repeat all the time. His advice always sounded like an admonishment.  

John had a signature tie, navy blue with small gold logos of New Jersey emblazoned on it, which he would gift out gladly, especially in the State Assembly chambers.  

If you admired it, and if he had none with him, he’d strip off the one he was wearing and give it to you. He’d give you the shirt off his back if, for some reason, you wanted that, too.    

A family man, father of four, John had a wonderful life. It was as if he was part of central casting in a Frank Capra movie. He was, by reputation, the George Bailey of his community.  

His father was Irish, his mother Italian.  His dad had a tryout for the NY Yankees, but he died at an early age and John was left to look after his mother and sister at the age of 12. 

He lived over a saloon in Jersey City, went to the local grammar school and on to St. Peter’s Prep.  

He served with General MacArthur as a staff sergeant in the Philippines during World War II, and afterwards worked his way through St. Peter’s College, at night, loading trucks on the Erie Railroad docks and for the Railway Express in Hoboken. 

He was awarded an accounting degree and worked for the Peat, Marwick, Mitchell firm from 1951 to 1962.  He made his way to Nutley from Jersey City, took a job with Nutley Savings & Loan and eventually became President and Chairman of the Savings Bank. But, he liked politics and he was good at it.  

First elected to the State Assembly in 1981, he served for 18 years (with a 2 year hiatus) spanning the governorships of Tom Kean, Jim Florio and Christie Whitman.  

His campaign for re-election in 1985 (having lost his seat in a Democratic sweep in 1983) is to this day considered one of the great comebacks in New Jersey political lore. He handled his ’83 loss with dignity and grace and he was equally magnanimous in his return victory. 

It was important for him to win back that legislative seat (not easily done in two short years) for many reasons chief among them he felt that he let his friends and family down. Politics, and being Irish, he often said, has a way of breaking your heart.  

One of the untold secrets of that ’85 political campaign was his profile in courage. He was seriously constrained by a failing back, desperately in need of orthopedic surgery.  

His response to the pain was to immerse in salt water baths every morning at a Hackensack hospital so that he could stand, then walk and campaign until late at night. Every morning he would get up and do it all over again, and he did it every day for more than three months. 

As a Republican, he eventually represented parts of Essex, Bergen, and Passaic counties. His original district (the old 30th LD) included towns from Cedar Grove to Belleville along the Bloomfield Avenue corridor.  In his day, he would get a sizable percentage of the vote from now deep blue Montclair on his way to district wide wins.  

John took great pride in writing legislation that he believed would benefit people. He had nearly 150 bills that he sponsored and were signed into law, which he would proudly assert was simply designed to help people. 

On the Appropriations Committee he secured necessary funding for disabled children and autistic research. He created a law, now a national model, requiring newborns to have their hearing tested before they are released from the hospital.  

He once told me that after his father died, Jersey City cops and firemen would bring gifts to him and his sister at Christmas time.  He never forgot his rough financial times or those who came to his aid.   

John authored the bill that guaranteed the pension and health benefits to all families of deceased cops and firemen. The International Association of Fire Fighters honored him in a special ceremony at The Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.  

He was renowned for his management at the bank and for his generosity. He made sure that the mission of his Savings & Loan was home loan mortgages. Countless families came to count on John V. Kelly for their homes and for the education of their children.  

He was proud of his Irish heritage and the Irish American community was proud of him. He never let anyone down. 

He’s gone now, having left us ten short years ago, and while the parade he started marches on, he is deservedly not forgotten.  

He was a happy man in a boisterous time, one of the best and brightest of his generation. He had the uncanny ability to make those around him just as happy as he was.   

John V. Kelly was comfortable with himself. He was brilliant and impish and surely one of the most courageous and generous Irish Americans I ever knew.