Theodore Koziar

Theodore Koziar of Raritan Township, NJ, a newspaperman for more than sixty years, died on June 9, 2011 at his home. He was 91.

Since 1975, Mr. Koziar was a news copy editor at the Herald News in Clifton, NJ and West Paterson, NJ serving three separate publishers during changes in ownership. He retired in 2008.

Mr. Koziar began his journalistic career in Newark, NJ as a police and City Hall reporter in the early 1940's with BiState News, an agency that services the Newark Star-Ledger. He joined the Newark Evening News in 1944 and continued with that newspaper until it closed in 1972.

At the Newark News he reported from its branch offices in Irvington, NJ and Orange, NJ, later joining the city staff in Newark as a general assignment reporter. He was assigned to most of the newspaper's beats before returning to covering Newark City Hall. Mr. Koziar was credited with breaking the story about Public Works Commissioner Leo P. Carlin's initiative to change Newark's City Commission form of government.

Mr. Koziar served on the copy and news desks of the Newark News and later was named assistant managing editor of the daily and Sunday editions. He was transferred to the publisher's office during contract discussions with editorial employees and assisted the newspaper's labor relations team in negotiating contracts with all its unions before and after the newspaper shut down in August 1972.

Before joining the Herald News in 1973, he worked in the news bureau of the Western Union Telegraph Company for nearly three years.

A graduate of West Side High School in Newark, he served as the elected president of the January 1938 class. While attending high school, he also worked as an auto seat cover installer and later established his own business. He enrolled as a student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, but was unable to continue classes because of family matters. He attended Union County College in Cranford, NJ, but did not complete requirements for an associate degree.

Before joining BiState News, Mr. Koziar worked at Wright Aeronautical Corp., Paterson, NJ installing sump pumps on Wright aircraft engines. He was an amateur radio operator, a member of the Hunterdon County Computer Club, and a member of the former Newark Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America.

Mr. Koziar was born in Shamokin, PA and moved to Newark, NJ in 1932. He lived in Orange, NJ and Cranford, NJ for 44 years, before settling in Raritan Township, NJ in 1997.

Surviving are his wife of more than 65 years, the former Elena Grace Giordano; three daughters, Carol Radis of Rockaway, NJ; Karen Boyd with whom he lived in Raritan Township, NJ; and Leslie Shaw of Lubbock, TX; a brother, Leon of Hot Springs, AR; seven grandchildren: Shannon Boyd Peffer, Stephen Radis, Tracy Boyd Gargan, Sylvanus Shaw, Cullen Shaw, Elizabeth Radis, and Courtney Shaw Andring; two great-grandsons, Michael Peffer and Matthew Peffer; and three great-granddaughters, Abigail Grace Peffer, Malana Jade Radis, and Madalyn Carleen Radis.

Private Family Funeral Services will be held on Monday at NOON in the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ. Interment will be in Fairview Cemetery, Westfield, NJ. Public calling hours will be held on Sunday from 2-4 and 7-9 PM in the funeral home.

Memorial contributions may be made to Hunterdon Hospice, 2100 Wescott Drive, Flemington, NJ 08822.

Please visit www.holcombefisher.com for further information, or to send condolences.