Former Congressman Peter Frelinghuysen Jr. was eulogized in Morristown on Friday as a man who practiced what he preached, without preaching to others.
“There was no, what you would call today, micromanaging,” said his son, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) “He wished for our health and happiness.”
Addressing 450 people at a memorial service in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, the congressman described his father, who died last month at age 95, as a man with a passion for education whose intellect was keen right to the end.
“His mind was in a constant state of motion, analyzing, judging, sharing, sharing his opinions,” said Rodney, the latest in a long line of Frelinghuysens to serve in government.
Peter Frelinghuysen represented Morris and Somerset counties in congress from 1952 to 1974. The Princeton graduate had served in Naval intelligence in World War II, and worked in banking before going to Washington.
A fiscal conservative with a moderate stance on social issues, he was a key figure in preserving what is now the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, which otherwise might be a jetport today.
And he helped produce the Higher Education Act of 1965, which made a college education possible for more people.
Peter Frelinhuysen was remembered on Friday as a stickler about grammar — he went over the congressional record with a fine-toothed comb and once refused to vote on a bill because it was so poorly written. His attention to detail even extended to the funeral service, which he planned.
John Dyer played patriotic songs on the church’s 18-ton carillon. There was Bach and Elgar on the Skinner organ, Loch Lomond sung by a New York men’s choir called The Ten, and America the Beautiful from the church choir.
Peter Frelinghuysen was an avid gardener; his ashes were interred beside those of his wife Beatrice in the church memorial garden, as a grandson, Clovis Ogilvie-Laing, played Amazing Grace on the bagpipes.
There were some light moments from Rector Janet Broderick, who recounted her pastoral moments with the late congressman.
She recalled enjoying a cheese soufflé with him, and feeling like she was dining with Humphrey Bogart or Gregory Peck.
“I said, ‘Peter, this is wonderful! And he replied: ‘Don’t tell anyone. They’ll think we’re having an affair.’ Peter Frelinghuysen was 95 years old…and I was on a date!”
The Rector got another big laugh when she produced the first book that Peter Frelinghuysen gave her. The title: On Bullsh-t.
On a serious note, she described how the congressman had worked quietly behind the scenes to reunite a Cuban family separated during Operation Peter Pan in the early 1960s.
The congressman’s refusal to support badly written legislation was not “being fussy,” the Rector said. “This is having an integrated character. What we believe in our hearts, we show forth in our lives.”
The service was attended by former Gov. Tom Kean, state Senators Tom Kean (R-11th Dist.) and Tony Bucco (R-25th Dist.), Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26th Dist.) , and the mayors of Morristown and Morris Plains, Tim Dougherty and Frank Druetzler, respectively, among other officials.
Asked about the congressman’s legacy, state Assemblyman Anthony M. Bucco (R-25th Dist.) cited an arboretum, schools and streets bearing the Frelinghuysen name.
“Look around,” the assemblyman said. “He touched just about everything.”
