Long-serving Hopewell Borough council president dies:

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2013/09/long-serving_hopewell_borough_council_president_dies.html

Jon Offredo/The Times of Trenton By Jon Offredo/The Times of Trenton The Times, Trenton
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on September 25, 2013 at 7:13 PM, updated September 25, 2013 at 7:26 PM

                         

Long-time Hopewell Borough council president David Knights passed away suddenly Tuesday morning.Courtesy of the Knights family  

 

HOPEWELL BOROUGH — Long-serving Council President David Knights died suddenly after suffering a cardiac arrest Tuesday morning, town officials and family members said today. Knights, 60, had served on the Borough Council since 1997 and had “his fingerprints on all of the major projects and preservation efforts,” Borough Administrator Michele Hovan said.
“For me to tell you about David, it would take me all day. He was an oracle. He was bigger than life,” she said. “He is the best example of public service that you can find.”
Knights also served at a number of community organizations, including Preservation New Jersey, where he was board president, and was well-known in the business community as vice president of Picus Associates and marketing director for the Princeton Forrestal Center complex in Plainsboro.
Bob Wolfe, Princeton Forrestal Center general manager and president of Picus Associates, remembered Knights as an intense worker full of enthusiasm and excitement.
“He would get very wrapped up in things and was very focused on them. He usually had a couple things all going at once,” said Wolfe, who worked with Knights for 28 years.
One of Knights’ most important achievements while working for Picus, which managed the Forrestal Center for Princeton University, was the preservation of a substantial piece of Princeton Nursery lands, Wolfe said.
“That was an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. So many people with so many different opinions on what was right and was wrong. At times I’d throw my hands up in frustration, and he would say ‘Calm down, we’ll work this through,’” Wolfe said. “He ultimately was right. He herded a whole lot of cats in the same direction and achieved a very important land preservation.”
Knights started his service with the borough as a member of the Transportation Task Force, served for years on the planning board and then became a councilman. He oversaw the renovation of the Hopewell Railroad Station, now a multi-use community facility, was instrumental in preserving land that became Hopewell Park, and was a major figure in the 340-acre St. Michael’s Farm Preserve project, according to a biography provided by the borough.
He also worked to turn a former 1950’s-era Masonic Temple into the new Hopewell Borough Hall and courthouse that opened last year.
“He was a true champion of the borough,” Mayor Paul Anzano said. “He was enthusiastic, and he was always trying to figure out the best way to do things that would benefit the borough.”
Knights’ wife Linda said her husband had previously served on the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission and was involved in the Delaware and Raritan Greenway Land Trust.
The couple moved to Hopewell Borough in 1988 and had three children who are now in their 20s, she said.
“He was a warm and loving person and was completely devoted to his children,” she said. “He rarely said no to anything our children thought was a good idea. He would be overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for his family.”
Hovan said the council will probably select a new president Oct. 7. The local Republican committee will offer several names of potential successors for his seat for council to choose from, she said.
Contact Jon Offredo at joffredo@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5680.