From his time as a Corporal in the US Army Police witnessing atomic bomb tests to becoming a power player in monmouth and ocean county politics, joseph buckelew has played a range of historic roles
by Laura D.C. Kolnoski Photos By Amessé Photography
Born in New Brunswick, Joseph Buckelew grew up in Lakewood Township, attending Lakewood High School, where he played football. He kept running after graduation, playing in semipro leagues around Ocean County.
Some would say he never stopped. At age 21, he became a police officer. The youngest sergeant in the history of Lakewood at 24, he then went into the U.S. Army Military Police during the Korean War, serving at Camp Pickett, Virginia and Camp George Meade, Pennsylvania. His military career led him to Camp Desert Rock, Nevada, where he literally stood on the Proving Grounds with fellow soldiers a mile from the camp’s Ground Zero, where atomic bombs were test-detonated. (“I’m still alive, so I guess it was alright,” Buckelew casually opined.)
Afterward, he returned to the Lakewood P.D., serving until age 29 until earning his insurance license and working for a local broker. In 1959, he purchased his first agency. A life in politics began with a run for a seat on the Lakewood Township Committee. He won, served one term, and later served for a year as mayor. During his tenure, the Lakewood Industrial Park was created, the police department was reorganized and modernized, and a local lake was acquired and preserved in an early act of open space preservation.
As Buckelew rose in business, politics, and social stature, his list of accomplishments grew—with career elevations often coming at the behest of others; he became a police officer because a detective came to his house and recruited him. After working on previous political campaigns, he was urged to run for political office. Buckelew credits Steve Lane, a pharmacist he worked for part time while a cop, as an early catalyst, too. The men became lifelong partners and friends.
“If it hadn’t been for him, maybe I’d still be a police officer,” Buckelew said. “All along the way, I’ve had nothing but good fortune and good friends.”
“I knew a lot of things that had to be done in the township,” he offered as the reason he was pegged for politics. “Before World War II, Lakewood was a resort area that would attract up to 100,000 people on weekends, until jet engines got people to Florida instead. The large hotels were virtually empty and we needed ratables and employment.”
As Buckelew’s insurance business expanded with the purchase of ten additional agencies, he was again recruited, this time by the Ocean County Republican Party, to run for county Freeholder. His one term, including a year as director in 1975, occurred during what he called a “renaissance period” in Monmouth and Ocean Counties. That term was marked by the establishment of the county’s first Office on Aging and Narcotics Bureau, the building of four vocational schools, and more land preservation (including the 530-acre Cattus Island Park in Toms River).
“I worked on many water quality and treatment issues, helping to protect sea wildlife and drinking water,” Buckelew said. “We were part of tremendous accomplishments that affected our lakes, streams, and bays.” He also continued raising funds for various projects and organizations, including Lakewood’s Kimball Medical Center, which eventually merged with Monmouth Medical Center and Barnabas Health. Buckelew served on the hospital boards. Now a Member Emeritus, he remains active, still attending most meetings.
With the status as an Ocean County Republican power player firmly established, he was elected Ocean County GOP Chairman. After he worked to help get Governor Christine Todd Whitman elected in 1993, she asked him to become Chairman of the New Jersey Highway Authority. During his two terms totaling eight years, the widening project of the Driscoll Bridge over the Raritan River and the Garden State Parkway expansion through Monmouth and Ocean Counties were initiated.
Buckelew “tried to pull back,” as he put it, but the lure of public service persisted.
“Governor Donald DiFrancesco asked me to serve on the Port Authority as Commissioner,” he recalled. “I was approved by the State Senate, but before I could take my seat, 9/11 happened. Two hundred and twenty people who worked with the Port Authority died.” Lewis Eisenberg, PA chairman that fateful day, rescinded his resignation and Buckelew found himself on the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority instead, where he became chairman and still serves on the Board. He participated in the construction of the new Jets and Giants stadium at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford and was involved in the ill-fated Zanadu entertainment complex. Construction began on that mega project in 2003 but stalled when the developer ran out of funds. Purchased by Canada’s Triple Five Group in 2010 and renamed American Dream Meadowlands, the revamped complex is scheduled for completion late next year.
Throughout those action-packed years, Buckelew was also delving into communications, acquiring a new radio frequency in Ocean County and creating WOBM AM and FM, becoming vice president of Seashore Broadcasting Corporation.
“It was one of the most successful small radio stations in the country before we sold it,” Buckelew recalled. “We had a large news department, which was revolutionary then. We bought equipment, designed the studios, and got national business. I knew nothing about it, but we learned as we went.” When cable television was on the rise, Buckelew wanted to be part of that, too. His was the first station in Ocean County, eventually merging with Monmouth Cablevision before that was sold to a larger concern after seven years. He was also part of a group of investors who purchased the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper in 2012, selling it two years later.
Banking also beckoned. Already Vice-Chairman of Jersey Shore Savings & Loan, he was asked to serve on the board of Commerce Bank, becoming chairman of the bank and Vice-Chairman of Commerce Bank Insurance Services. Commerce Bank was eventually sold to TD Bank, which Buckelew indicated was in the best interests of the stockholders and employees. Commerce Insurance Services ultimately became Conner, Strong & Buckelew Cos., Inc., an independent insurance agency. For several years running, Conner Strong & Buckelew was recognized by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of the region’s leading corporate givers, measured by total cash contributions and cash contributions per employee.
The firm launched three affiliate companies— PERMA, J.A. Montgomery, and AIM—designed to broaden the scope of services available to clients. Today, Conner Strong & Buckelew ranks among the largest insurance brokerage firms in the country. Additionally, PERMA operates the largest property and casualty insurance public entity risk pool in the nation, and its third largest employee benefit public entity risk pool. The company is headquartered in Marlton with New Jersey offices in Bridgeton, Parsippany, and Toms River. Other offices are in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Florida.
Buckelew is a past President of the Ocean/Monmouth County Chapter of the Independent Fee Appraisers, member of the National Association of Independent Insurance Agents, Professional Insurance Agents, and the Independent Insurance Agents of Ocean County. He is currently a member of the ocean County Board of Realtors as well as a current Member and Past Chairman of the Ocean County College Foundation. He has received honorary degrees from Monmouth University and Georgian Court University, as well as honors from various organizations including the Boy Scouts, but he hasn’t let them all go to his head.
“You get these honors because it’s a way of raising money for the organizations; I have no delusions,” he observed. “If success turns your head, you know you are looking in the wrong direction. I get involved because I’ve been lucky as sin, with good friends who helped me out.” Buckelew singles out his wife of over 60 years, Carol, their sons Brian and Kevin, and their wives and his six grandchildren, whose accomplishments he details without hesitation. (Brian is now an executive at TD Bank, while Kevin runs a title insurance operation.) Buckelew also praises his “dedicated employees,” some of whom have been with him for 30 years or more.
A member of Manasquan River Golf Club, Due Process Golf Club in Colts Neck, and Eagle Oaks Country Club in Farmingdale, Buckelew swings clubs when he can. An exercise buff, he’s a walker and swimmer who works out several times per week. He’s also a proud “crossword puzzle freak” and avid reader.
How does a man in his 80s find time to do all this?
“I stay up late and get up early,” he laughed before turning serious. “I won’t retire. There is no place in the world except America where someone could do the things I’ve done… not going to college and coming from a middle class family. Whatever you want to do, you can do it if you prepare yourself. This is the land of opportunity.”
Joseph E. Buckelew
Conner Strong & Buckelew Companies, Inc.
401 NJ-73, Marlton / 856.489.7000
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