Bill Trask Was Larger Than Life and Had a Heart for the Community

Bill Trask’s granddaughter describes him as a man who was “larger than life. He was very sweet.”

While many will remember him as an opinionated man who was passionate about his township, he was also a man who helped construct the Galloway Township Athletic Association’s first baseball fields, was a cub scout leader and owned a store where the township’s youngsters could go for candy, soda and conversation.

He was a man with a big heart, but it might have been a broken heart that ultimately ended his life.

Trask died Wednesday morning, Sept. 26 at the age of 92, 14 months after his wife of 67 years died.

“He really missed his wife a lot,” Trask’s granddaughter Diane Kalin said. “His desire to be with her was stronger than anything else.”

According to Kalin, Trask overcame prostate cancer during the 1980s. Within the last year, there were signs that the cancer could possibly be coming back. His wife, Vera, died on Mother’s Day last year.

“He didn’t want to do anything about (the possible cancer),” Kalin said. “ … They loved each other. They drove each other crazy, of course, but to be her without her was more than he could take.”

Trask was born in Iowa, and lived in an orphanage when he was younger.

“He joined the Coast Guard, and that’s what brought him to the East Coast,” Kalin said. “He met my grandmother, and that’s what kept him here.”

Trask moved to Galloway in 1944 and developed a natural passion for the town.

“He loved this town,” Kalin said. “He said it was always very welcoming.”

As a member of the Coast Guard, Trask built barracks in Atlantic City and North Carolina during World War II. He was also a boxer, and he played college basketball according to his son, Bill Trask Jr.

“He always worked hard,” said Bill Trask Jr., who turned 63 the day his father died. “He was good with the athletic associations and he was good with the boy scouts.”

He was also a brilliant mathematician, who “did trigonometry for fun,” up until his last days, according to his grandson, also named Bill Trask.

He was a carpenter who owned a corner store where Galloway’s youth could always go to get a bite to eat, and he built his home with his own hands in 1957.

“We rented the house across the street right after I was born while he built our house,” Bill Trask Jr. said. “He was going back and forth between Pennsylvania and New York for jobs while he was doing that.”

Ken Sooy Sr. first met Trask when he was 11 years old and Trask was his boy scout leader.

“I was in Troop 49 and he was my leader for a year,” Sooy said.

Kalin will always remember weekends at her grandparents’ house.

“One time, I almost went down their basement steps when I was learning to ride my go-cart,” Kalin said. “My grandmother was scared to death. We had a lot of fun.”

Much of Galloway will remember him most for his political contributions.

“He believed everyone should vote,” Kalin said. “He said if you don’t vote, you’re not even expressing an interest.”

Trask was one of a six-person committee that helped establish Galloway Township’s current form of government back in 1974, which was Galloway’s bicentennial year. According to Trask’s family members, the proposal to use the Council-Manager form of the Faulkner Act for Galloway was Trask’s suggestion.

In November of 1973, the voters elected Trask as one of the six members of the committee to study the township’s government over a nine-month period to determine if its five-member committee needed to be changed. At that time, the township grew to a population of 9,000 people. A revaluation had been conducted the previous year, and the environment was ripe for a change in government.

There was no mayor and no manager, and the Charter Study Commission determined the township would benefit from having a mayor and a manager, both appointed by council, and that council should be increased by two members. The report was released in July, 1974, and the proposal went before voters that November. The voters passed the referendum, and the township has used that form of government ever since.

“He thought we got away from the way some of the things were set up,” said Anna Jezycki, who knew Trask for over 40 years. “I wanted to see council use the Faulkner Act a little bit more. There’s a reason it was written and he thought we should go back to that.”

Trask wasn’t shy about his political opinions. It’s what he was best known for, and how Jezycki came to know him.

“The first time I met him, there was some kind of political issue going on and we ended up on the same side of it,” Jezycki said. “He was always a township person. He always wanted what was best for the township.”

“He wasn’t exactly a gafly, but he got his digs in on certain people,” Planning Board Member and Galloway Historian Ken Sooy said. “I’ve seen him in action for 30 years. Sometimes he was right, sometimes he was wrong. He was always around. There’s not many people who didn’t know him from somewhere.”

Trask, a lifelong Republican, once ran for council and served on the Zoning Board, according to his granddaughter, Dianne Kalin. He won the Mayor’s Award in 1990.

He was also the Building Insepctor in the 1960’s and a lifetime member of the Oceanville Volunteer Fire Company. In July of 1990, he rescued a woman by the name of Mary Fromosky from her car when it crashed across the street from their home.

“He pulled her out of the car right before it exploded,” Bill Trask Jr. said.

Bill’s wife, Vera, was the County Nurse for about 50 years, according to Jezycki.

Bill Trask Jr. was their only child, but they would live to see four grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

After retiring from her position as County Nurse, Vera Trask went into business as a private nurse.

Trask only became more busy once he retired, waking up early and working constantly to make Galloway a better place.

“He looked at some of the other municipalities around here, and he didn’t want to see Galloway end up in poverty like them,” Kalin said. “He never lost sight of the community aspect. He wanted to preserve it.”

“His heart and soul was in this community,” Jezycki said. “He always tried to do what he thought was the right thing to do.”

Bill Trask’s friends and family have one more chance to say goodbye Saturday morning. The viewing is at Lowenstein’s Funeral Home, 58 South New York Road, Galloway, at 11 a.m., with the burial to follow.

It’s the last chance to say goodbye, but the memories will last forever.

“Anyone that knew him will remember him,” Bill Trask Jr. said.