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Dan Gaby Memorial Service 12/17, and Obituary

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Dan Gaby of West Orange, father, leader, mentor, and friend, left this life on Dec. 10, 2009, after a protracted fight with pneumonia.

Dan was loved deeply and intensely by all he knew and met. Most importantly, he will forever be missed by his wife, Corky; his children, Lisa, Suzanne, Keith, Vanessa, Corrine and Donny; his grandchildren, Devin, Jackson, Noah, Jordan, Jared and Nora, and his siblings, Doris, Molly, Murray and Beattie.

Dan spent his life defending those who could not defend themselves. He tirelessly worked to bring freedom and equality to the downtrodden, the lost, the disenfranchised. As anyone who has met Dan will attest, his accomplishments bordered on innumerable.

Dan lived a full life in both the public and private spheres. Dan was a graduate of Rutgers University, Newark Campus, and began his career in advertising as a copywriter. Dan ultimately became the owner of Keyes Martin, then one of the state’s largest advertising agencies, representing such high profile clients as AT&T, ShopRite, and The Port Authority. Dan created such famous campaigns as “New Jersey and You: Perfect Together,” in addition to writing the Shoprite “Can Can” song.

In many ways, however, Dan’s professional life was his hobby. His passion was politics, and the art and science of social change. A committed, lifelong Democrat, Dan served in many roles in the party, including chairing the 1964 Johnson-Humphrey campaign in Somerset County and Co-Chairing the McCarthy delegation to the 1968 Democratic convention. Dan was the Chair of NJ Citizens for Byrne in 1976, and Citizens for Florio in 1989. And he twice, in 1976 and 1980, was the State Chairman for Jimmy Carter for President. Most notably, Dan ran a vigorous primary race for the Democratic Senate nomination in 1972. Dan worked on campaigns but never became a creature of the status quo. If he felt like supporting a candidate, he did. If he didn’t, he didn’t. He worked in politics on his own principled, terms, and always fought for the underserved in the process.

But Dan cared about education, its reform, and school choice, with an intensity that surprised even those who knew him well. He often talked of how his U.S. Senate campaign showed him that, through many of our government services, housing, healthcare, and education, we had delivered our poorest and most vulnerable citizens into monopolies from which they could not escape. Having also served on the State Board of Education as its Vice President, the Rutgers Board of Trustees and Board of Overseers, and as the Vice President of Essex County College, Dan knew too well the value of education, and the burden of not having one, on our neediest citizens. Dan felt that educational choice was an imperative, a precondition, if equality for low-income, largely minority populations was to become a reality.

Always ahead of the political thought of the time, it was almost 30 years after his epiphany before Dan took up the stewardship of Excellent Education for Everyone (E3), after first serving on its board. Dan believed that the battle for equal educational opportunity was the logical extension of the civil rights movement, in which he also worked tirelessly. Dan built, here in New Jersey, the country’s most diverse coalition of school choice supporters, including Democrats and Republicans, tax and business groups, religious leaders, parents, and elected officials. He lead with a “by any means necessary” bent where the organization’s one goal was to “get a child from a terrible educational place to a better one, now.” He supported all sectors of the educational spectrum (traditional public schools, charter schools, and private schools among them) which is itself unique. But most importantly he believed in a parent’s ability to make the best educational decision for a child, and that a zip code, or someone’s income, should not relegate a child to a terrible school. For Dan, it was always that simple.

A celebration of Dan’s life will be held at his memorial service on Thursday, Dec. 17, from 12 to 2 p.m. at St. Matthews A.M.E. Church, 336 Oakwood Ave., Orange, N.J. In lieu of flowers, the Gaby family would deeply appreciate donations to Excellent Education for Everyone (E3), at http://www.nje3.org/donate or by mail to E3, 45 Academy St., Ste. 501, Newark, NJ, 07102.