Dudas Resigns As City Historian

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Sept. 8, 2010)

PERTH AMBOY — Embattled City Historian Jack Dudas last week resigned the unpaid position to which he was appointed by Mayor Wilda Diaz on Jan. 30, 2009, “effective immediately.”“With the retirement of (Community Decelopment Director) Michael Keller, I feel that I can no-longer accomplish anything of note through the new bureaucracy,” Dudas, a former Councilman, wrote in a two-page letter to Diaz dated Aug. 27. “It seems that no one understands their role with regard to historic properties, with the exception of Mr. (Public Works Director) Paul Wnek, who is attending to the problem of the broken Town Clock (on the Simpson United Methodist Church steeple, High Street), through the work of Mr. Danny Cleaver.”
The City Historian is responsible for carrying-out historical programs, storing historical materials to ensure their preservation, providing an annual report of work accomplished each year, researching and publishing historical materials, and assisting in projects of commemoration, including installation of monuments, historic markers and guide-signs.Dudas, an attorney whose family has lived in the city for four generations, had aspired to the post while serving as Assistant City Historian while William Pavlovsky was City Historian during the Administration of former Mayor George Otlowski.Retired City Clerk Harold Augustine, widely-known as “Mr. Perth Amboy,” who later served as President of the Library Board of Trustees, held the post of City Historian before his death in 2005.Dudas, who holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in History, has been involved in efforts over the past 30 years to save several historic city structures from being razed — most-notably, the former Majestic Theater, now the Cathedral International, on Madison Avenue — and carried his enthusiasm for that role into his official position.However, he cited “frustration and disrespect” in what he believed was lack of cooperation from other city officials in protecting historic buildings.