John V. Kelly

Kelly was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on July 11, 1926 of Irish and Italian descent. He attended St. Nicholas Grammar School and St. Peter's Preparatory School. While in college during the day, he worked at night at the Erie Railroad docks and for the Railway Express Agency. He worked as an accountant for the firm of Peat, Marwick, and Mitchell (now part of KPMG), where one of his responsibilities was auditing Nutley Savings and Loan. He was hired in 1962, became comptroller and a board member the following year and executive vice president in 1971. He was named president and chairman after the death of John Dolan. Under his leadership, the savings and loan was ranked 13th among the 200 S&Ls statewide, with 22,000 customers and $212 million in assets, grown from the $60 million at the start if his tenure. ==Political career==

He first won a seat in the New Jersey General Assembly in 1981 against Democrat Mary V. Senatore. He was unseated two years later by 26-year-old Democratic Party candidate Steve Adubato, though Kelly would take the seat back in 1985. The seat was considered one of the few statewide that could have been a pickup for the Democrats. In 2003, he challenged Furnari's successor Paul Sarlo of Wood-Ridge, who was elected to replace him in the Assembly in 2001 and who also outspent Kelly by a nearly three-to-one margin in a pivotal race at a time when the Senate was evenly split between the two major parties and a change in party for any one seat could tip control of the upper house. A longtime fixture at Nutley's St. Patrick's Day festivities, Kelly would wear a bright green suit that had been custom-made for him. He also played a pivotal role in creating that community's Columbus Day parade. As president of Nutley Savings Bank, Kelly was known for going out of his way to find a justification to fund a mortgage for a prospective customer and was likened to Jimmy Stewart's character George Bailey in the holiday classic ''It's a Wonderful Life''. ==Death==

Kelly died at age 83 on October 30, 2009, in what was described as "a most peaceful manner" at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, New Jersey He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth, as well as by two daughters, two sons and 11 grandchildren. ==References==