54°
Christopher Lubben, 54, a former boys soccer coach at River Dell High School, was struck and killed by a commuter train in Oradell a half-dozen blocks or so from the school Wednesday evening -- the night before this year's graduation.
******
TRIBUTE: A funeral Mass was scheduled this Monday for Christopher Lubben -- the fun-loving and well-known Oradell wholesaler known as "The Meat Guy."
******
NJ Transit officials hadn't officially determined why the third-generation meat and restaurant supplies wholesaler was on those tracks -- just south of New Milford Avenue near the Marginal Road intersection -- when he was struck just before 7:30 p.m.
However, responders and several friends agreed that it was intentional, making Lubben the third male professional to commit suicide in Oradell the past two years.
SEE: Man, 54, Struck, Killed By Train In Oradell Near River Edge Border
A River Dell alumnus (Class of 1982), Lubben had a larger-than-life personality. It seemed everyone in Oradell -- and beyond -- knew the garrulous guy who owned and operated Golden Meats.
"He was a man about town, for sure," one friend told Daily Voice, before word of Lubben's death began to spread.
A father of three, he was "the honorary mayor looking out for our town," wrote Emily Michelman Stoecker. "His family has been here forever. I can’t imagine the pain his family is feeling."
Lubben made headlines six years ago when local police said store surveillance cameras captured images of him punching a 17-year-old boy at the local Rite-Aid.
"He said it was the moment in his life that he wished he had a do-over on," a good friend said.
The Kutztown University grad made the incident a distant memory, doing for others and making sure that he left his customers and others -- especially himself -- smiling or laughing.
He was a teaser --, a buster, as they say -- poking and prodding people with abandon.
"You beat me up about my Mets, but you were one of the good guys," James Shulz wrote in a tribute. "I'm heart-broken, my friend."
Or, as another said: "He liked to stir the pot."
"One of a kind," Kathleen Sakosits Battaglino wrote of Lubben, someone whom she said people will "always remember [for his] passion and laughter."
The NJ Transit #1635 Pascack Valley Line commuter train had left Hoboken at 6:48 p.m. Wednesday, due to arrive in Spring Valley at 8:03 p.m., with 400 customers and crew aboard.
It struck Lubben a few steps between Kinderkamack Road and the Hackensack River a little over a half-hour later.
"I can't wrap my head around this," friend Robike Noll-Faries said Thursday morning. "I want to think that he was chasing a homeless man to interview him or trying to save an animal to feed it."
"I just can't imagine him, of all people doing this on purpose," friend Ruthann Kordell added.
CHECK BACK FRIDAY FOR ARRANGEMENTS
Click here to follow Daily Voice Paterson and receive free news updates.
