Former state Sen. Thomas Cowan dies at 82; 'champion for state's children'

Thomas Cowan, who spent 16 years representing Hudson County in the state Legislature, died Sunday.

Cowan, 82, was an assemblyman from 1978 to 1984 and a state senator from 1984 to 1994 for the 32nd District, which includes part of Jersey City, North Bergen, East Newark, Fairview, Harrison, Kearny and Secaucus.

"Tom Cowan was an early and longtime champion for the children of New Jersey," said Peter Herbst, executive director of the Hudson County Child Abuse Prevention Center.

"As a member of the New Jersey Senate, he co-sponsored legislation creating the New Jersey Children's Trust Fund - one of his many legislative accomplishments. He was a member of the board of directors of the Hudson County Child Abuse Prevention Center from 1990 to the present.

"To honor his commitment to children, the Center's Distinguished Service Award was named after him in 2004. As an elected official, he was beyond reproach. As a family man, he was devoted and beloved. As a human being, he was without peer. We will miss him."

Cowan's political career got off to a slow start when he made an unsuccessful bid for a Jersey City City Council seat in 1973, but four years later he was elected to the Assembly.

"Tom was an upstanding state legislator for the people of Jersey City and his entire district," said Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy. "He was 100 percent a gentleman.

"He hearkens back to a day when politics was practiced in a more civil fashion. Tom will be missed by all those who knew him and certainly all the people he represented so well during his tenure in office."

After serving in the Army during World War II, Cowan got a job as an apprentice engineer and earned a degree from Seton Hall University. Cowan rose through the ranks and eventually became a full-time business representative for Local 825 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

Of his six years in the Assembly, Cowan said in a 1983 interview that "I have a record of over 100 pieces of legislation signed by the governor."

Cowan was ousted from the state Senate in 1993 when he was defeated in the primary by Nicholas Sacco, also the North Bergen mayor, who has held the seat ever since.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

JOURNAL STAFF