Sterner was born in
Belmar, New Jersey, on January 3, 1894, to Willard J. Sterner and Jennie L. Disbrow. After graduating from
Asbury Park High School in 1912, he worked for the Lewis Lumber Company in
Asbury Park where his father was the manager. He then served in the
United States Army during
World War I. He attended officers' training camps in
Plattsburgh and
Fort Niagara,
New York, and was commissioned
Second Lieutenant in 1917, later promoted to
First Lieutenant before being sent overseas in 1918. He was salvage officer with the
2nd Infantry Division and was engaged in the
Second Battle of the Marne, the
Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive. After the war he returned to Belmar and managed the Sterner Coal and Lumber Company, founded by his father in 1919. He married Dorothy and had as their children: two sons, George W. Sterner, of Wall Township, New Jersey; and John N. Sterner of Spring Lake Heights; a daughter, Dorothy Sterner Braly of Baltimore, Maryland. He served for seven years, continuing under Hoffman's Democratic successors,
A. Harry Moore and
Charles Edison. Edison launched an investigation of corruption in the Highway Department, and Sterner resigned in 1942. When the full report of the investigation was released the following year, it found malfeasance in some cases of land acquisition for right-of-way purposes, where property owners represented by influential politicians were given sweetheart deals. Sterner continued to serve as president of the Sterner Coal and Lumber Company in Belmar. He later served as president of the New Jersey Lumbermen's Association and in 1950 was appointed to the National Lumber and Allied Products Retailers Industry Advisory Committee to the
United States Department of Commerce. A resident of
Avon-by-the-Sea, he died on September 30, 1983, at the
Jersey Shore Medical Center in
Neptune City at the age of 89. ==References==