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Scuba-diving scholar, mayor and historian James Sealy is dead at
(by Karen F. Mrnarevic - September 16, 2008)
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Photo courtesy of the Westwood Borough Hall
A photo of Jim Sealy taken when he was Mayor of the Borough of Westwood in 1967.
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James G. Sealy, who served as a councilman and mayor for the Borough of Westwood for 14 years, and was a pivotal member of the Pascack Mayor’s Association, died on Monday, Sept. 8. He was 87 years old. His death is not only a painful loss to his loving family, but to the community as a whole, which he served for most of his life.
Sealy had a long and impressive career as a chemical and industrial engineer and safety specialist. After graduating from Westwood High School in 1939, he went on to pursue a degree in Chemical Engineering at Cooper Union Institute of Technology in New York City. He entered the U.S. Army in 1942 and was assigned to the famed Manhattan Project as a Technical Advisor Supervisor for a top secret uranium isotope separation plant in Tennessee.
Following his discharge from service, Sealy went on to earn an Industrial Engineering degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1948. After working as a Utilities and Safety Consultant for a private company and a Technical Advisor for the American Safety Council, Sealy became the Director of the Business and Industry Division of the Greater New York Safety Council. In that capacity, he worked with many of the building trades involved with constructing the World Trade Center.
Sealy’s public service career was also long and diverse. In addition to serving on the Westwood Borough Council for many years and later becoming mayor, he was also a founding member of the Pascack Valley Mayor’s Association. Township of Washington Mayor Rudy Wenzel, who has known Sealy since 1982, described Sealy as a natural leader. “He gravitated to the role of coordinator,” said Wenzel in a recent phone interview, “He kept the books and he drafted resolutions… Incoming mayors always learned from him. He steered everybody in the right direction.” Wenzel called Sealy’s death “a big loss to the association… He was dedicated to governmental organizations in a big way. He truly loved Westwood.”
Old Tappan Mayor Victor Polce described Sealy as an icon, a mentor and a friend. “Jim epitomized the word ‘class’ and knew how to treat people with respect and dignity,” Polce said. “When I had the honor of serving as President of the Mayor’s Association for two years, Jim guided and helped me through the process, putting up with my mindless, and seemingly endless, questions… Jim meant so much to us and we will truly miss him.”
In addition to being a tenacious leader and a devoted public servant, people close to Sealy also describe him as an avid history buff. A member of the Pascack Valley Historical Society for decades, Sealy was also a trustee of the organization for about 12 years, according to Francesca Moskowitz, a fellow trustee. Moskowitz said that the loss of Sealy marks the passing of an era, and that he will be missed by all who worked with him, not only for his breadth of knowledge and dedication, but for his sense of humor as well. “We'll miss his counsel. He looked at a big situation and he could always get to the center of it and offer ideas,” said Moskowitz.
Woodcliff Lake Mayor Joe LaPaglia, the current President of the Pascack Valley Mayor’s Association, was extremely impressed by Sealy’s interest in preserving the rich history of the region he called home. “There are few people that I know who knew as much as Jim about the history of the Pascack Valley,” LaPaglia said in a phone interview.
Although Sealy touched the lives of those he knew but casually, it is his family that knew him best and will miss him most. “He was a very good natured person,” said Sealy’s niece Kathy Light, a Washington Township resident. Like many who knew him, Light was always impressed by her uncle’s intellect. “He was an extremely intelligent man. He could do a crossword puzzle in his head without looking at the paper. He was like an encyclopedia,” she said, noting that he was not serious to the point of stuffiness. “He was a very funny person. He did like playing jokes.”
Light said that after her own father’s death, her uncle became even more important to her and her three siblings, offering the guidance and love of a parent. While some people may not consider their aunts and uncles to be part of their immediate family, Light said she and her brothers and sister made it a point to keep their uncle close to them, visiting frequently. “He’s always been part of my life,” Light said. “He’s been my father.”
John Sealy, Light’s brother and a Ho-ho-kus resident said the whole family got together at least every other Sunday for dinner at his home. John recalls a man who was a brilliant conversationalist. “I think what I will miss most about him is just being able to talk to him,” he said of his uncle, whom he added was always the consummate gentleman. “He never cursed or raised his voice.”
Along with his naturally unquenchable thirst for knowledge, years of traveling made Sealy a veritable fount of interesting anecdotes and historically rich commentary. Sealy, said John, spent a great deal of time in Latin America as a young man, and maintained a collection of tribal artifacts from his travels. John recalls a time when his uncle returned from a trip with a surprising souvenir: “He brought back a shrunken head.”
A scholar, a social servant, a preserver of history, a beloved uncle, and believe it or not, an avid scuba diver of Lake George, Jim Sealy will be missed tremendously. But in the hearts and minds of the many whose lives he enriched with his humor, wit and warmth, he will live on.
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