by Walter Elliott
In 2008, “Local Talk” had the honor of interviewing Mr. Adubato. During that interview, he mentioned something his father told him: “A Winner Never Quits, A Quitter Never Wins.” Wise words from a wise man.
NEWARK – Simple purple and black mourning banners, with one exception, started going up on the North Ward Center’s buildings along Mt. Prospect Avenue Oct. 19 in the wake of founder Stephen N. Adubato’s Oct. 16 death.
The one exception was at its headquarters here at 346 Mt. Prospect Ave. While the gates to the former Victorian era mansion were closed, a photo banner was strung along its avenue-side gates.
The photo banner of Adubato with his beloved wife Fran, family and North Ward Center children, was superimposed with “Forever Big Steve.”
Adubato, 87, who died in the presence of his family Friday, was the founder of the North Ward Center, the Robert Treat Academy charter school and three related non-profits dating back to 1970-71. The groups include child and adult day care centers and a center to help autistic children.
Looking back at 346 Mt. Prospect, where “Big Steve” kept his office through 2010, was also the seat of North Ward-based political power. Candidates who were endorsed by Adubato and had his political machine support are found in elective offices from the Newark Public Schools Board of Education to the U.S. Senate.
Adubato, who never disguised his power brokering, insisted that his political clout was a means to help the poor and disadvantaged in the North Ward and in Newark.
“Nice guys are those who sit back and do nothing,” said Adubato in several 1980s-2000s interviews. “I much rather be feared.”
The North Ward Center, who announced Adubato’s passing, did not say whether he had died in a house near the mansion here or at his vacation beach house in Lavallette.
The announcement did not state Adubato’s cause of death. Son Stephen N. Adubato, Jr. in an Oct. 20 interview with WBGO-FM News Director Doug Doyle, said that his father has “struggled with cognitive issues the last 10 years.”
Adubato, who was born here into a family of seven Dec. 24, 1932, had made several life-changing decisions – starting while he was in Seton Hall University.
The North Ward native and Barringer High School Class of 1949 graduate was into his first year when his father, who ran a service station here in the 1930s, had suddenly died. His mother persuaded him to stay in SHU.
Adubato graduated SHU with a BA in political science in 1954. After serving in the US Army, and marrying Frances Calvello, he studied at Rutgers Law School before returning to SHU for a master’s degree in education in 1960.
“There was a time where I was deciding whether to become a lawyer or a priest,” recalled Adubato in the 1990s. “I met and married Fran, so that took care of the priesthood. I became a Newark school teacher until I went out on my own in 1970.”
Stephen and Fran moved into Stephen Crane Village 1954-56 and began raising Steve, Jr., Michelle and Theresa. Steve, who was hired by NPS as a history and government teacher, became a political liaison in the Newark Teachers Union.
The lifelong Democrat won a contested North Ward legislative district seat in 1962 and became North Ward Democratic Chairman in 1969 – several months before the epic mayoral race between incumbent High Addonizio and challenger Kenneth A. Gibson.
Adubato joined Newark Fire Chief and West Ward Chairman John Caufield in backing Gibson against the established Addionizio. Gibson, upon his election, gave Adubato seed money to start the North Ward Center.
When Adubato backed Gibson for his 1974 re-election, his political process became a program. Residents can remember North Ward center buses taking residents to the election day polls. Large billboards and a poster-plastered sound truck would appear in the ward beforehand.
Adubato continued to serve the North Ward while its demographics shifted from being a primarily Italian enclave to mostly Latino. That makeup can be found both among the North Ward Center’s workforce of 200 (in the 1990s) and in his endorsement of candidates.
Some observers believe that Cory A. Booker’s going to Adubato to support his 2006 mayoral campaign was a key to his successful election. Booker left City Hall to become U.S. Senator in 2014.
Brother Michael, who died in 1993, was a nine-term New Jersey State Assemblyman in the 1970s-80s. Son Steve became the youngest New Jersey General Assemblyman in the 1980s. Wife Fran was an appointed Essex County official into 2016.
Adubato started the Robert Treat Academy, one of the first charter schools here, in 1997.
Those within the ward and across the city may remember Adubato-backed “For Our Kids” NPS Board of Education candidates being annually vying for election against the “Children First” slate, whose backers include educator/South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka. (Newark’s school board elections, like all others statewide, were ostensibly nonpartisan.)
The For Our Kids-Children First jousting ended after Baraka was elected mayor in 2014. He agreed to accept North Ward Center-based candidates on a “Newark Forward” fusion ticket in exchange for Gov. Christopher Christie granting Newark Public Schools its long-sought autonomy.
Adubato’s presence at the mansion, by then, became less frequent over time. He first turned over daily and CEO operations to daughter Michelle.
His Chevrolet Cruze was mustered into school transport service. The annual pre-Christmas party for local media and officials ended. His portrait all but faded away from NWC and RTA billboards.
Adubato’s official obituary and funeral arrangements, as of 5 p.m. Oct. 21, have not been released.
It is not known whether a tombstone in “Big Steve’s” mansion office will be his official marker. That marker’s epitaph reads: “He was not a nice guy.”
