Maureen Ogden

Maureen Black Ogden (November 1, 1928 – August 17, 2022) was an American Republican Party politician who served seven terms in the New Jersey General Assembly between 1982 and 1996. She represented the 22nd Legislative District for five terms until 1992 then was shifted to the 21st Legislative District (in redistricting following the 1990 United States census) where she served two terms of office.

Maureen Ogden
Ogden in 2006
Member of the New Jersey General Assembly
In office
January 12, 1982 – January 9, 1996
Preceded byWilliam J. Maguire
Succeeded byKevin J. O'Toole
Constituency22nd District (1982–1992)
Constituency21st District (1992–1996)
Personal details
Born(1928-11-01)November 1, 1928
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
DiedAugust 17, 2022(2022-08-17) (aged 93)
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)
Robert M. Ogden, III
​
​
(died 2010)​
[1]
Children3
Alma mater

Early life

Ogden was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1928 and emigrated to the United States in 1930 with her family.[2][3] Ogden attended the private all-girls Kent Place School in Summit, New Jersey.[4] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in 1950 and earned a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1963.[3]

Career

Ogden served as deputy mayor of Millburn, New Jersey from 1976 to 1979 and was its mayor from 1979 to 1981.[5]

Ogden was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly to represent the 22nd District in 1981 with running mate Bob Franks and the two were re-elected to four terms of office together in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989. She was redistricted to the 21st District following the results of the 1990 Census, and was elected to two terms there with running mate Monroe Jay Lustbader. She served in the Assembly as Assistant Minority Whip from 1982 to 1985. During her tenure in the Assembly, 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 Committee, the Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and on the State Government Committee.[5]

In 1992, Ogden co-sponsored a bill with Robert C. Shinn, Jr. that would make New Jersey the first state in the nation to require its entire fleet of motor vehicles to use remanufactured or retread tires, which Ogden cited as a way to keep tires out of the waste stream.[6]

Legislation supported by Ogden in 1994 created a $350 million fund that would be used to preserve open space, with the money going to acquire open space and for farmland and historic preservation.[7] That same year, Ogden was chief sponsor of a bill in the General Assembly that would give adoptees the opportunity to get access to their original birth certificates. Ogden's original opinion had been to limit such access out of fear that adoptive parents would lose their children if they found out that they had been adopted, but changed her mind after realizing "that the basic rights of the little babies were not being considered".[8]

As chair of the Governor's Council on New Jersey Outdoors in 1998, Ogden targeted raising $1 billion over the subsequent decade to be used to preserve 1 million acres (4,000 km2) of farmland and open space.[9]

Personal life

She was married to Bob Ogden, who died in 2010, and they had three children, including former Summit councilman, Henry Ogden.[3] Ogden died on August 17, 2022, at the age of 93.[10]

References
  1. "Obituaries: Robert M. Ogden, III dies at 88; Short Hills resident had served in Army Air Corps during WW II". Independent Press. June 10, 2010. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  2. Marquis Who's Who-Maureen Ogden
  3. Wildstein, David (August 17, 2022). "Maureen Ogden, seven-term assemblywoman and environmental champion, dies at 93". New Jersey Globe. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
  4. Horner, Shirley. "About Books", The New York Times, September 4, 1994. Accessed October 25, 2019. "Its noted graduates include Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden, Republican of Millburn; Deborah Wiley, vice chairwoman of John Wiley & Sons, and Amanda Urban, a powerful literary agent."
  5. Manuscript Group 1379, Maureen B. Ogden (b. 1928), N.J. Assemblywoman Archived February 8, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, New Jersey Historical Society. Accessed July 21, 2010.
  6. Gray, Jerry. "POLITICAL NOTES; Badillo Is Considering His 4th Mayoral Race", The New York Times, November 22, 1992. Accessed July 21, 2010.
  7. Staff. "Bond Act to Preserve Land", The New York Times, September 30, 1994. Accessed July 21, 2010.
  8. Sullivan, Joseph F. "Bill Would Let Adoptees See Birth Records", The New York Times, December 6, 1994. Accessed July 21, 2010.
  9. Staff. "METRO NEWS BRIEFS: NEW JERSEY; $1 Billion Price Tag For Preservation Effort", The New York Times, February 27, 1998. Accessed July 21, 2010.
  10. Johnson, Brent (August 19, 2022). "Longtime N.J. lawmaker Maureen Ogden dies at 93". NJ.com. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
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