Gilbert W. Lugossy, a pillar of Mercer County who served nearly fifteen years as sheriff, as well as stints as a freeholder, Hamilton school board member, state parole board member, and fire commissioner, died during the night. He had recently celebrated his 90th birthday.
Lugossy could be among the last living former freeholders before Mercer County changed its form of government an elected a county executive in 1975.
“He was a man who loved public service and people,” said his longtime friend, former Sheriff Samuel Plumeri. “He was authentic. He had no pretense.”
Hamilton Mayor Jeff Martin said his family was “saddened by our ‘Uncle’ Gil’s passing.
“Kind, caring and always respectful, he was everything a public servant should strive to be. Our prayers are with his family as well as our appreciation for sharing him with so many,” Martin said. “He will be forever missed.”
In 1963, Lugossy, then 27-years-old, was elected to the Hamilton Township Board of Education. And by 1967, he was the board president. He did not seek a third term in 1969.
Lugossy was elected to the Mercer County Board of Freeholders in 1970, running on a ticket with incumbent John Watson, the father of Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), and Paul Sollami, the father of County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello. (Sollami got an early start when he was appointed to the freeholder board after incumbent Frank Black resigned for health reasons.)
In the contest for the Democratic party endorsement and line, the three defeated Princeton attorney Archibald S. Alexander, and former Trenton Mayor Donal Connelly.
In the general election, Lugossy, Watson, and Sollami faced one-term Republican Freeholder Regina Meredith, the sister of Gen. Alexander Haig, who would serve as U.S. Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan. Sollami was the top vote-getter, followed by Lugossy and Republican Dominick Iorio, a Rider University professor who unseated Watson by about 4500 votes. Meredith ran fifth, about 3,200 votes behind Lugossy.
(The loss of Watson, the first Black to win a countywide election in Mercer County, was widely attributed to race riots in Trenton in October 1970.)
He sought a second term as freeholder in 1973 on a ticket with Sollami and former Washington Township (now Robbinsville) Mayor Albert Driver. In the Watergate Democratic wave election, the Democratic slate won a landslide victory – about 20,000 votes over Republican Thomas O’Neil, John Davis, and Richard Piepzak.
In 1975, after Hamilton changed its form of government to create the first directly elected mayor, Lugossy became the Democratic candidate – the local Democratic Club, of which he was president, picked him over Councilman Fred Gmitter – and faced Republican Councilman Jack Rafferty. Rafferty beat Lugossy by almost 4,600 votes, a 60%-40% margin. Gmitter, who ran for council, was the lone Democrat to win that year.
After Democrat Charles Kovacs decided not to run for a second term in 1976, Lugossy decided to run for Mercer County Sheriff. Republicans nominated Richard Hedden, the brother of Democratic freeholder nominee James Hedden. Lugossy defeated Hedden by about 15,500 votes, 57%-43%.
When he ran for re-election in 1979, Lugossy won by over 7,000 votes against Thomas Yarson, a sheriff’s officer, with a 55%-45% margin. In a 1982 rematch with Yarson, Lugossy won by over 18,500 votes, a 60%-40% margin.
Despite Republican Gov. Thomas Kean’s landslide victory in 1985, Lugossy won a fourth term over Republican Elmer Golya by a 3-2 margin. Golya was a U.S. Army combat veteran and former Trenton police officer who served as director of public safety under the Republican county executive, Bill Mathesius.
Gov. Jim Florio nominated Lugossy to the parole board, and he resigned after the Senate confirmed his nomination in 1990. Plumeri, his undersheriff, succeeded him.
In 1997, expecting Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman not to reappoint him to the parole board, Lugossy decided to challenge two-term State Sen. Peter Inverso (R-Hamilton) in the 14th legislative district. The race pitted two proven vote-getters from Hamilton against each other in what was one of the best Senate races of the year.
Both parties pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the 14th, but Inverso beat Lugossy by 9,329 votes, 55%-45%.
A longtime Hamilton fire commissioner, Lugossy stepped down last year after more than 25 years on the Firemen’s Home Board of Managers.
He was a graduate of Brown University and a longtime volunteer firefighter. He was related to actor Bella Lugossy.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
