The inscription above City Hall entrance summarizes Bill's philosophy.
Plainfield will miss Bill Hetfield, longtime community activist and preservation enthusiast, who passed away suddenly Monday evening.
I first met Bill shortly after moving to Plainfield in 1983, when preserving historic Plainfield properties and neighborhoods was a hot topic.
There was quite a debate in the community over whether developing historic districts was a real benefit, and Bill was not shy about expressing his opinion -- and support for -- the movement.
To say that Bill Hetfield was ready to offer advice would be an understatement.
Like many people who have a clear goal in mind, he could be enthusiastic to the point of sometimes rubbing the wrong way, but there was never any doubt that what Bill envisioned was a Plainfield that preserved the best of what it had and prepared itself for a place of honor among New Jersey communities, never settling for second best.
He was more than willing to put his time where his interest was, and the list of his involvements is a long one indeed, including the North Avenue Historic District (Plainfield's only commercial HD), the Crescent Avenue Historic District, and support for historic designations for Plainfield's municipal complex, as well as the creation of the Historic Preservation Commission.
When Plainfield's first gay organization, Residents Supporting Victorian Plainfield (RSVP), organized a brunch at the Seventh-Day Baptist Church in conjunction with one of the Van Wyck Brooks Historic District's house tours, he eagerly spread the word when he learned to goal was to raise funds for the small congregation to use toward preserving the unique terra cotta roof on the church. Bill was a dismayed as the rest of us when the congregation later replaced the irreplaceable roof with one of composition shingles. But Bill never let a single setback slow him down.
He eagerly engaged in the development of larger visions for Plainfield -- both supporting Al McWilliams strategic planning initiative, which engaged nearly five hundred residents in a year-long planning effort that prioritized goals for city government, as well as another planning overview spearheaded by Bill, Murray and Helga Roberts, Tom Kaercher and Susan Olszewski.
He was eager to have Rose Walker's nephew's concept models for Park-Madison, which featured a hotel/convention center be exhibited. Though admittedly they were a fantasy, and he and I disagreed over whether the scheme had a 'snowball's chance in Hell', the exhibit went on and drew press interest and developer inquiries. Nothing wrong with that!
At the time of his passing, he was working with Nancy Piwowar, members of First-Park Baptist Church and others on a project to preserve the Evergreen Cemetery on Plainfield Avenue, which is composed of two parcels labeled on the tax maps as the 'Methodist' and 'Baptist' cemeteries.
Bill, we shall miss your enthusiasm, your dedication, and yes -- your advice.
My condolences go out to Lisa and the family.
-- Dan Damon [follow]
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1 comments:
the first thing I read when I saw this was "I wonder if he would have lived if they only had to drive to Muhlenberg?"
Poor guy had to be schlepped out to JFK and we all know that it's more than twice as far.
May he RIP. Condolences to his family. We need more like him.
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