FAIR LAWN, N.J. — Longtime Fair Lawn resident Jim Croucher's dream of beautifying the borough lives on, thanks to a donation made by his wife in his name.
"I feel him beside me every time I go to water the flowers or water the shrubbery," Greta Croucher told Daily Voice after presenting the $5,000 gift to the borough. "I know he's with me. I know he's smiling."
The Shade Tree and Garden Club committees will use the money for beautification projects, officials said.
The Croucher family owned a farm on the site of the current Fair Lawn Commons complex.
Jim Croucher, who maintained a lighted heart statue at Fair Lawn Avenue and Route 208, died last year at 83.
"He was a wonderful guy," Mayor John Cosgrove. "He had a place in his heart for where his family's farm was."
Greta Croucher said her husband always wore a smile and never missed a chance to shake someone's hand.
The late Croucher worked as a pharmacist with Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals for 40 years. He was graduated from Rutgers University School of Pharmacy and served on the Rutgers Presidential Council for many years.
Cosgrove described the donation as a great tribute to him and said the Fair Lawn committees were already thinking of the best ways to use the funds.
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