The Class of 2023 Gets Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame
[Words by Mike Greenblatt | Photos by Gary Gellman/Gellman Images]
PHOTO: Tony Orlando
The top-selling single of 1973—“Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree”—was co-written by Irwin Levine (Livingston), and recorded by 2023 New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee Tony Orlando (Union and Hasbrouck Heights), with his group Dawn. Orlando was honored October 29 at NJ PAC in Newark with fellow inductees singer-songwriter Patti Scialfa (Deal) and producer-writer-director David Chase (The Sopranos) of Clifton and North Caldwell, in the entertainment category. New York Giant running back Tiki Barber (Florham Park) and WNBA all-star Sue Wicks, a Rutgers alum, were also inducted, in the sports category.
In the Arts & Letters category, librarian-curator Dorothy Porter Wesley (Montclair) and painter-sculptor George Segal (South Brunswick) received honors, as did entrepreneur-philanthropist Finn Wentworth (Mount Tabor) and businessman Josh S. Weston (Montclair). Inductees in the Public Service category were politician-teacher Steve Adubato, Sr. [1932-2020] of Newark, politician-businessman-philanthropist Charles Edison [1890-1969], of West Orange (the son of inventor Thomas Edison), and economist George Shultz [1920-2021] of Englewood. In the “Unsung Heroes” category, Anna Diaz-White (Hazlet) was inducted for commandeering the state’s domestic violence hotline, as was Michael Fux (Newark) for his lifelong charitable work.
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“Music is powerful,” Scialfa said in her induction speech. “It’s just so powerful. All kinds of music…It can inform you. It can resonate back to you a part of who you are, who you’d like to become. I was fortunate to meet and work with so many brilliant musicians and artists, and find a piece of that world, a little piece of that world, for myself. And I’m so deeply grateful to the many people I’ve worked with who have reflected back to me the beauty and transformative power of music.”