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New Jersey Women Making History
2004 Honorees
Maryanne S. Connelly
In 1986, Maryanne Connelly, became a member of the New Jersey Association of
Women Elected Officials, when she was elected Police Commissioner of
Fanwood, New Jersey. She served that organization for thirteen years,
spending two years as it President and nine on its Board of Directors.
During that time, Maryanne rose from Fanwood's Police Commissioner to
Councilwoman, to Council President and Mayor. In 1998, Maryanne ran for
U.S. Congress against entrenched incumbent, Bob Franks. Maryanne lost that
race, but kept her team intact and worked the next four years to be ready
for another run. When the seat opened for the 2000 race, it became one of
the top three races in the U.S. Even though Maryanne had made it perfectly
clear that she wanted to run, had the organization and had done the
fundraising, she was not given the party line for the race. Maryanne
decided to run a primary challenge, without party aid and won. In the race
for the seat, Maryanne raised two million dollars, involved more than five
thousand volunteers and won 48.6 % of the vote. This uphill struggle to
have a woman taken seriously as a legitimate candidate in a highly contested
race earned Ms. Connelly the 2001 NOW National Woman of Courage Award and
our eternal gratitude. Maryanne also serves as Co-Chair of the Women's
Leadership Forum, New Jersey Chapter and is an Adjunct Professor of
Political Science at St. Peter's College.
Joyce W. Kurzweil
Joyce Kurzweil has been affiliated with Planned Parenthood of Southern New
Jersey since 1981, serving as Community Affairs Coordinator until 1985, and
is presently the Executive Vice-President. In her current role, Joyce has
direct supervising responsibilities for the agency's Education and Training
Department, and for the Public Affairs, Volunteers and Human Resources
Division. An Army veteran, who served at Fort Dix and in Germany in the
later 1960's, Ms. Kurzweil brought her service training in the personnel
field to Jewish Family Services in Cherry Hill in 1970, where she served as
an employment counselor. Ms. Kurzweil chaired the New Jersey Advisory
Committee on the Status of Women, 1992-1996. She also chaired the Healthy
Mothers/healthy Babies Coalition of Camden, NJ. Joyce is a former member of
the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Women's Summit; a former member of
the Board of Directors of Spaulding for Children, an adoption agency, where
she also served as the chairperson of the agency's advisory committee. Ms.
Kurzweil served on the Camden County Health Board and Camden County Housing
Board and was President of the Camden County League of Women Voters.
Lucile Pfleeger
Lucile Pfleeger traces her activist spirit to her parents, who were always
helping the Seneca Indians and loaning money to young war veterans, while
she was growing up in upstate New York. The former President of Alice Paul
South Jersey NOW Chapter began her activism in the 1960's, when she and her
husband, Clarke, joined the Glouster County Chapter of the NAACP and the
County's Human Relations Council. She co-chaired the first Black Arts
festival at Glassboro State College and successfully integrated her
community pool. Working in the antipoverty movement, Lucile was a member of
SCOPE Community Action Committee, helping to develop the EOF program
(Martin Luther King) at Glassboro State College. Continuing her civil rights
advocacy, Lucile and her husband joined NOW , where they escorted at a
Cherry Hill clinic and volunteered at domestic violence shelters. Lucile
went on to establish Alice Paul NOW's Lesbian Rights Task Force. The
Pfleegers were both founding members of Woodbury's Rainbow Place and the New
Jersey Gay and Lesbian Coalition. Lucile's other memberships and honors
include: FAMCARE, where Lucile served as a Board member for six years; PASA
- People Acting to Stop Abuse, where Lucile served several years as its
President; OIC - South Jersey - Opportunities Industrialization Centers;
Glassboro Economic Development Corporation for Minorities; Title XX
Coalition, where Lucile was the Glouster County Chair; Migrant Health
Program; South Jersey Health Systems Agency; Chestnut Ridge Civic
Association; Juvenile Conference Committee #4, where Lucile heard first
offenses of juveniles; JINS - Juveniles in Need of Supervision; where Lucile
is a certified probation counselor; Friends of the Arts at Rowan University;
Stageworks at Rowan University; League of Women Voters; Alice Paul
centennial Foundation; National Woman's Party; National Museum Women in the
Arts; New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women; the Forum Project at Trenton
State Prison; Democratic Women; Glouster County Jail Study Committee;
International Society for Music Education; National Autistic Society; NEA;
NJEA; Retired NJEA; Music Education for the Handicapped; Woodbury Symphony
Orchestra; Operation Music, a summer program for 20 minority boys where
Lucile acted as its director in 1967; Friends of Glassboro Library, where
Lucile chaired the Program Committee; Glassboro Child Development Center;
Glouster County Child Care Coalition; Glouster County Visiting Homemaker -
Home Health Aide Program; CAP - Child Assault Prevention Program; Faculty
Wives Glassboro Community College; Museum of Art and Culture - People of
Color; Association for a World University; ASH and GASP, anti-smoking
organizations; and Preschool Circle, Glassboro Public Schools, where Lucile
was president in the 1950's.
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