Longtime mayor passes baton, will continue to support veterans causes
SOMERS POINT — Outgoing Somers Point mayor Jack Glasser called the 16 years he served “a great time as a public servant to the city I love.”
Glasser presided over his final meeting in the position Dec. 14 after deciding not to seek re-election to a fifth term in November. Former City Council member Dennis Tapp was elected to take his place.
Glasser’s family moved to Somers Point from Philadelphia when he was 12, and except for nearly four years in the military, he has lived there ever since. He said his father learned to caddy at the former Somers Point Golf Course and eventually brought the family to the shore.
He has been serving his community for his entire adult life. Glasser was a police officer in Northfield for 25 years, retiring in 2002 as a captain. Before that, he served nearly four years of active duty with the U.S. Air Force, spending two years in England, before retiring in June 1977.
The Holy Spirit High School graduate then returned home to Somers Point and joined the New Jersey Air National Guard’s 177th Fighter Wing in Galloway Township. He retired as a master sergeant in 1997, then went to work as a physical education teacher at St. Joseph school for nine years. Not ready to sit still, he now works in security at the Atlantic County Institute of Technology (ACIT) in Mays Landing, where he will continue full time.
He and his wife, Diane, have two grown children and two grandchildren.
“My son has a son and my daughter has a daughter,” Glasser said during an interview last week.
Glasser’s political career began in 2006, when he was asked to run for an unexpired term on City Council and won. The next year he ran for mayor to replace Dan Reilly, who was stepping down, and won again. He then won his second term as mayor in 2011 with 75 percent of the vote and again in 2015 and 2019.
Glasser said the accomplishments during his time as mayor include securing millions of dollars in state grants, reviving the business district on Route 9 and creating a marketing campaign to advertise the city to outsiders.
Glasser was named an Individual of Excellence — Elected Official for 2017 by Downtown New Jersey. The award recognizes elected officials who demonstrate leadership and dedication to downtown development and are considered models worthy of emulation.
During his tenure as mayor, Glasser also aided efforts to reopen the historic Gateway Playhouse in 2017, a staple in the city’s Bayfront District, and helped found the Arts Commission, which is responsible for raising awareness and hosting events for the arts, Downtown New Jersey cited in its commendation.
Glasser also developed new systems to streamline processes for business owners with the implementation of the Conceptual Review Process, which provides business professionals the opportunity for their innovative plans to be reviewed and critiqued by a board prior to application to the zoning or planning board.
On Dec. 14, state Sen. Vince Polistina provided a joint legislative commendation from the state Legislature.
“I think when you look up public service in the dictionary, you reach Jack Glasser,” Polistina said, noting his military, law enforcement, City Council and mayoral experience. “Everything he has done in his career is really amazing.”
Polistina noted all of the veterans events held in the city as well as holiday parades and other festivities.
“Thank you for all your years of service and I wish you the best of luck in everything you are going to do now,” he said.
Glasser, who noted his is a rather quiet guy, said it was an honor to have served.
“I’m very humbled by this,” he said.
City Council passed a resolution honoring the mayor, citing his career as well as his public volunteer service. It notes that Glasser has been a member of the St. Joseph Knights of Columbus, for which he served as a Eucharistic Minister, volunteered as a basketball coach, served on the Bayfest Committee and worked with the Miss American Pageant.
It also noted he supports veterans causes and spearheaded the effort to create the Somers Point Veterans Advisory Board in 2019.
“The City Council of Somers Point expresses their deepest appreciation and heartfelt gratitude to Mayor Glasser for a lifetime of dedicated public service including 16 years as mayor and his unwavering commitment to the betterment of Somers Point and its residents,” the resolution states.
Councilman Sean McGuigan, who noted he rode Glasser’s coattails into office, called him a “fine example of what a public servant should be.”
“Your service to the community, and really to your country, I can’t thank you enough for that,” he said.
Councilman Howard Dill said he remembers when Glasser asked him to get involved with the Planning Board 16 years ago and then City Council the next year.
“Words can’t express how much we will miss you,” Dill said
Councilman Joe McCarrie thanked him for his leadership.
“The mayor has always shown the dignity and grace that a mayor needs to show, and did that in a very proficient way,” McCarrie said.
Councilman Mike Owen said Glasser “set the bar high for everybody here.”
Chairwoman Maureen Kern, a former City Council president, provided a proclamation from the Atlantic County Board of Commissioners and County Executive Dennis Levinson.
Glasser said he has worked with “some really great people” over the years.
“It was an honor to be elected these 16 years,” he said. “It’s humbling to me that the people said they want me to be their mayor four times.”
He said while he no longer will sit in the mayor’s seat, he doesn’t plan to sit too long in any seat. Along with continuing to work at ACIT, Glasser plans to spend more time with his wife and “two beautiful grandchildren,” who are about 12 and 17 months old now. He also asked to be appointed to the city’s Veterans Advisory Board, which he helped create, calling it one of his proudest achievements.
“I have been close to the veterans community, working with all the veterans service organizations. There’s so many out there, that’s why we created the ordinance for the Veterans Advisory Board, so we can have a committee to keep everybody together and informed, together to coordinate all the things we do,” Glasser said.
Coincidentally, his biggest disappointed is related to the military as well.
“One disappointment is that we were never able to bring home Richard Somers during my tenure,” Glasser said, noting he mailed a letter to the Secretary of the Navy several weeks ago requesting that his office again look into the situation.
Master Commandant Richard Somers, who was born in 1778 in the city named for his family, was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy in 1797. He was killed seven years later while leading a fireship attack against Tripolitan-backed pirates during the Barbary Wars in 1804. He is recognized as among the first heroes of the fledgling U.S. Navy.
The ship Somers commanded, the Intrepid, was a floating bomb filled with 100 barrels of gunpowder and 150 fixed shells. Somers led 12 volunteers to sail the ship into Tripoli Harbor in an attempt to destroy the pirate fleet. However, the ship exploded prematurely, killing all aboard.
The bodies of all 13 crewmen washed ashore the next day and were buried in an unmarked communal grave. The Libyan government unearthed the remains in 1949 and moved them to the Old Protestant Cemetery in Tripoli, where they remain today.
Efforts to repatriate the remains to the U.S. have been unsuccessful.
“I couldn’t leave office without at least giving it one more try,” Glasser said.
Overall, he is proud of his accomplishments and hopes he has reinforced the foundation for others to build atop.
“It’s not only elected officials but volunteers, city employees all working together for one goal, to take care of problems now and building for the future,” Glasser said. “People are going to come after you and take the things you do and you hope that everything you have done is right for them.”
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff