Former state Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden MCRP ‘1977, known for championing environmental causes in her 14 years in the New Jersey Legislature and as the first female mayor of Millburn, died Wednesday, August 17 at the age of 93.
Named to the Bloustein School Alumni Awards Hall of Fame in 1995, Ms. Ogden served as mayor of Millburn, NJ from 1979 to 1981 after serving as the township’s deputy mayor from 1976 to 1979. She was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly to represent the 22nd District in 1981 and was re-elected to an additional four terms of office. She was redistricted to the 21st District following the results of the 1990 Census, and was elected to two terms there. During her tenure, she served as Chair of the Committee on Conservation, Energy and Natural Resources, Chair of the Committee on Arts, Tourism, and Cultural Affairs, as Vice Chair of the Financial Institutions Committee and the Drug Abuse Committee, and as a member of the Health, the Conservation and Natural Resources, and State Government Committees as well as the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
In 1992, Ms. Ogden co-sponsored a bill that would make New Jersey the first state to require its entire fleet of motor vehicles to use remanufactured or retread tires. In 1994 she supported the creation of a $350 million fund that would be used to acquire open space and for farmland and historic preservation and was chief sponsor of a bill in the General Assembly that would give adoptees the opportunity to get access to their original birth certificates. As chair of the Governor’s Council on New Jersey Outdoors in 1998, Ms. Ogden targeted raising $1 billion over the next 10 years to be used to preserve 1 million acres of farmland and open space.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she was recognized as Legislator of the Year by the Cogeneration Institute of A.E.E.; was the recipient of the President’s Conservation Achievement Award from The Nature Conservancy and the Public Policy Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation; received a Distinguished Service Award from the N.J. Audubon Society; was recognized as Legislator of the Year by the N.J. Conservation Foundation; and was presented the Public Sector Preservation Award by the N.J. Historic Trust.
Read more about her career in the New Jersey Globe and nj.com