By Laura D.C. Kolnoski
COLTS NECK – Lillian G. Burry, 87, of Colts Neck, will not run for a seventh term on the Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners and will depart elected office when her current term ends in December.
In a letter to county GOP chairman and Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden, Burry wrote, “Now is the time to bring my political life to a close, but I assure all who have counted on my support for the good things that make Monmouth County a wonderful place, my voice will not fall silent as I explore new ways to be of service. Civic life is limited only by life itself.”
Burry had “a serious talk” with her family which convinced her “I had done a lot, and it was time to think of myself and my husband Don. My overriding goal has always been to make a positive difference for all county residents, advocating for open, honest, responsive government with a strong dedication to protecting and enhancing the environment.”
Burry spent a career shattering glass ceilings. A founding member and president of the Matawan League of Women Voters, she was the first woman elected to the Matawan Borough Council in the 1970s, where she also served on the planning board.
After moving to Colts Neck, she was elected to the township committee, serving two terms as mayor, as well as sitting on the planning board, zoning board, and long-range planning committee. The owner of Colts Neck Realty and past president of the Women’s Council of Realtors, Burry was a pioneer in farmland, open space and historic preservation. Rather than eyeing farms for development, she persuaded owners to enter their land into fledgling preservation programs.
“Each piece of land we preserve helps protect the quality of life in Monmouth County, now and in the future,” said Burry, who built a reputation for coalescing bipartisan support at all levels of government and the private sector to bring her efforts to fruition. She was a mentor to many.
In 1996 she formed the Colts Neck Farmland & Open Space Preservation Committee, which became a model statewide, and founded the township’s historic preservation committee. Popular historic house tours she initiated ran for 10 years. The annual Colonial Christmas celebration she started still draws crowds to the township’s historic one-room Montrose School. Burry negotiated the purchase of that site for $1 from the township’s defunct historic society and had it refurbished.
For years, she had professional actors from a Philadelphia theater company come to local schools to bring history to life, portraying Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross and even a lively debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. For Monmouth County’s 325th Anniversary, she hosted “George Washington” and “Molly Pitcher” at a memorable freeholder meeting.
Burry oversaw the installation of commemorative historic plaques throughout Colts Neck and other initiatives to preserve and raise awareness about local history. The township’s “Welcome to Colts Neck” road signs and the bronze horse adorned traffic roundabout at Crine Road and Dutch Lane are attributable to Burry.
The former history teacher was mayor on Sept. 11, 2001, when five Colts Neck residents perished in the World Trade Center attacks. Burry formed a committee, fundraised and contracted with her friend, late artist Jim Gary, known for his recycled metal sculptures. On the third anniversary of the tragedy, she led a ceremony with representatives from the U.S. Navy, the Colts Neck High School ROTC, Scouts, and the families of the deceased at town hall, where a perpetual fountain featuring five butterflies surrounded by five benches marked with the local victims’ names was unveiled.
In 2006, Burry joined the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, becoming the first female director in 2008 and continuing her preservation efforts. Today, she said, over 18,000 county acres have been saved for agricultural purposes or added to the park system. To support the equine industry, she formed the county’s “Save the Horse Committee,” lobbying state officials on the value of equine agriculture and the horseracing industry.
For most of her county-level service, Burry was liaison to the Monmouth County Library Commission, Department of Parks & Recreation, Planning Board, Veterans Affairs, and Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST), garnering shelves of awards and walls of honors, including the Spinnaker Award from the Eastern Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce and the Count Basie Theater Vanguard Award.
After the U.S. Army announced the closure of Fort Monmouth in 2005, Burry was appointed by then Gov. Jon Corzine to the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA), helping formulate redevelopment parameters for the 1,126-acre property. To implement the plan, FMERPA transitioned into the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA), on which she remains an active member.
She proposed a veterans housing complex be located on the former fort after her husband Donald read about Soldier On, a Massachusetts nonprofit that built such projects. She formed a bipartisan coalition supporting the effort. Sites were identified, only to be discounted. Two former Tinton Falls officials – Gary Baldwin and Gerald Turning – offered to sell land adjacent to nearby Seabrook Village for $1.
In November 2021, the ribbon was cut on Solder On’s Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community, a $23 million, 70-unit, four-story facility on Essex Road offering comprehensive services to male and female veterans. A bronze statue bearing the names of Burry, Baldwin and Turning graces the facility’s lobby.
“When Lillian is committed to something, she’s headstrong, determined, and completes it,” said Commissioner Director Thomas A. Arnone at the ribbon cutting.
The pair created the county’s Grown in Monmouth initiative to promote farmers; wineries, breweries, distilleries; and garden centers countywide.
“Working on the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth has given me great satisfaction and the opportunity to accomplish things I knew could be done there,” Burry said. “The fort holds so much promise. It’s gratifying so many people are involved and engaged.” Early on, she secured the fort’s former gas station for the county’s public works department, followed by acquisition of an early education center, now part of the county park system and renamed the Fort Monmouth Recreation Center.
State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-11), recalled when he was the County Democratic Chairman 10 years ago and “tasked with trying to beat her in her election.”
“She easily beat our candidate and I came to appreciate her tenacity and straightforwardness, and how much she connected with voters, hence why she was the top vote getter nearly every time she has run,” Gopal said. “It helped move me away from wanting to be part of any type of partisan political activity against her and turned me into a supporter and admirer. It is a real shame that the County Republican Party recruited a candidate to try to defeat her this year. She has done more to protect open space in Monmouth County than anyone else.”
Golden did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
A first-generation Italian American, Lillian G. Beneforti attended New York City public schools and graduated cum laude from Wagner College with a degree in political science and history. In 2004, she received the Wagner College Alumni Fellows Award in Political Science.
At Wagner she met Donald Burry, a former sales manager and retired U.S. Coast Guard captain. The couple has one daughter, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
“I have always held myself to the highest ethical standards, living by the principle espoused by Thomas Jefferson: ‘When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property,’ ” Burry said. “The deeds we do and the things we create endure beyond our hour upon the stage. A well-lived public life signifies faith in the great continuum of civic duty, and a deep belief in the importance of liberty and democracy.”
The article originally appeared in the March 9 – 15, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
