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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it'’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

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-_ It'’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it'’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone, Steve Adubato and Jacqui Tricarico for the "Remember Them."

Team Jacqui, this is one of those "Remember Them" programs I wish we were not doing because Sheila Oliver at the age of 71, our lieutenant governor, former speaker of the Assembly, speaker of the House, passed away at 71 years of age after a long illness.

We remember her, we honor her, we pay tribute to her throughout this entire program.

She made a huge difference in the state of New Jersey and the nation.

- She really did.

And we get to hear from so many people in this half hour special just about the impact the lieutenant governor had on so many and her commitment from day one to really give back and look after the people of New Jersey, really looking at everybody and how she could better the communities, better the people, better the state in general.

And I know that you just put out this beautiful tribute to the Lieutenant Governor in New Jersey Monthly column talking about her commitment to the state but also your personal connection, right, Steve?

- Yeah.

You know, there's so many women who entered politics in and around the state, particularly women of color, who credit Sheila Oliver for inspiring them, for paving, people use that expression, "paving the way" a lot.

She did.

She made it not easy but easier for so many who serve in the legislature at the highest levels.

The first African American woman to serve as Speaker of the House, the first African American woman to be Lieutenant Governor, Sheila Oliver was extraordinary.

And so for Jacqui, myself, the entire "Remember Them" team, we paid tribute, we honor, we remember Sheila Oliver.

- "Remember Them", once again, is joined by Senior Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at PSEG, Rick Thigpen, hey, Rick.

Good to see you buddy.

- How ya doing, Steve?

- I'm okay.

I didn't expect that we would be doing this.

The late Sheila Oliver, 71 years of age an iconic historic important figure in New Jersey died way too young of an illness that she kept very private throughout her life.

Rick, you knew our Lieutenant Governor former Speaker of the House, very well.

Why should we not just remember Sheila Oliver but continue to honor her, please?

- Very interesting, Steve.

It's a privilege to add my voice to those who are talking about the legacy of Sheila Oliver.

I did attend her services at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, and it was truly inspiring.

So lots of people knew Sheila Oliver better than I did.

I had the privilege of knowing her a long time.

The first time I met Sheila Oliver as a young person was when my brother had a summer job in the Mayor's Office of Employment and Training in the city of Newark.

Everybody called it MOED, under a man who, people who knew the Gibson administration knew a name, Harry Wheeler, a famous guy in that world, Steve.

- And so- - She went there with my brother.

So he got a chance to know Sheila back then from way back.

And I was a very young man, had my first experience with her as I got a little older and I spent a lot of time with Congressman Donald Payne Sr., both as a City Councilman and later as a Congressman.

Sheila grew up on Bach Avenue in Newark.

And so I used to watch her interactions with Don Payne up close and they used to talk about the past.

They are both sort of birds of a similar feather.

They're both children of the civil rights era.

They brought the spirit of the civil rights struggle into the world of elected politics.

They both had a deep love of community engagement and to create opportunity for the young people.

They were also both deeply aware of the world of injustice that many of people of color, especially African Americans were forced to endure in our society.

- Hmm.

- And Sheila had a role model who Don Payne knew well, a man named William Ashby.

William Ashby was the- - The Great William Ashby.

- The first black social worker in New Jersey.

- Yeah.

- And a mentor of Sheila Oliver.

And I used to listen to her and Don Payne talk about William Ashby, and how he would work with the young people, and how it really informed her life as she got older on how to help people and sort of have that perspective of community engagement.

Sheila took that learning into the Leaguers Inc. A community organization designed to educate and expose young people to a broader world of diversity and make young people, you know, as we all know, who are parents it's all about exposure for young people, exposing them to the world and to the things that are possible and to what's going on to help them develop and grow.

And Sheila really took that to heart and she had a love of the Leaguers for many, many years.

Anytime I hear that name I associate it with Sheila Oliver.

- But where the heck does elected office come into it for her?

Because she was an educator, a community, very much involved in not-for-profit organizations, but where does elective office come in for her?

- That's exactly where I was going.

Empowerment, Steve, is where it comes into and empowering our voice and empowering our community.

Sheila moved to East Orange, New Jersey, which happens to be my hometown and started her rise in East Orange politics.

I saw kind of a comrade at the time if I could use that expression, Cardell Cooper, who became the mayor of East Orange and ran for County Executive.

And they injected a whole new sense of energy into East Orange.

And another partner in that effort was a man named Leroy Jones, who we now know as State Chairman of the Democratic Party, the Essex County Chairman, and the Chairman of East Orange Democratic Party.

A man who's got a lot of influence in the state of New Jersey today.

- That's right.

- So my father was close to them.

So I got to know Sheila again through her involvement with my father in East Orange politics.

And she ran for office.

So I supported Sheila when she ran for Mayor to succeed Cardell Cooper and it costs me my job as the lawyer for the Orange Planning Board, which she'd lost by just 51 votes.

But she wasn't down.

She then rebounded, became a, I'm sorry, she had started with the school board, ran for mayor, then went out and become a freeholder, then entered the State Legislature and became the second woman and the second African-American to be Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly.

She became the second African American in the history of our great country to be the presiding officer of a legislative body.

So it made history, I had a front row seat watching Sheila navigate Essex County politics, which you know is not necessarily for the faint at heart.

- No, it's not.

- Also for state politics.

And she did it with grace and dignity.

She never sold her soul.

She maintained her focus on community engagement.

She maintained her focus on civil rights, equity and justice.

She maintained her focus on advancing African Americans out of the world of injustice and poverty into the world of equality.

And she did it with grace and dignity.

All of us wanted to see her fight the fight and be more successful.

But she was really an outstanding person.

And then to, of the culmination of a (garbled) journey, she became- - In 2017 - She became the Lieutenant Governor under the Murphy Administration, the first African American woman to statewide office.

She followed Cory Booker, who became the first African American ever to win statewide office in New Jersey.

And she also occupied that office with grace and dignity.

She became the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs.

- That's right.

- So she had chance to influence local, you know, government policy in a way that really made all of us proud.

She was a voice, a voice for equity.

I'll say it again.

A voice for justice.

A voice for caring about the little person.

And then Steve, onto her funeral, she left at a fashion that most of us could only dream of, where her very life was a mission and a message for younger people to do better, to try harder, and never back down from the cause of justice.

And it's just really inspiring to see such a beautiful thing happen to such a great woman.

I will add one last thing, her Chief of Staff, Terri Swanson Tucker, was the Chief of Staff to my father as the Essex County Democratic Chairman, and the Essex County Register and Mortgage- - Phil Thigpen - Phil Thigpen.

- The Great Phil Thigpen.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry Rick.

- So I saw Terry come up under my father.

I watched my father coach her and counsel her and then she graduated up to Sheila and into statewide, you know, office, so to speak.

And so I feel especially close to Sheila, not that I knew her better than other people but I got a chance to watch her rise.

And I learned a lot from Sheila about the challenges of politics in terms of not selling your soul and putting your community and your people first and becoming a public servant, not just a politician.

And she optimizes that as well as anybody, I believe Donald Payne Sr. did the same thing.

- So you listened to Rick talk about, and to see scratch the surface by the way, of who Sheila Oliver was and why she matters so much.

The first, the first African American woman to serve as a Speaker of the House.

- And Joe DiVincenzo deserves credit for helping make that happen too- - Joe D. the Essex County Executive.

But also, I wanna be clear.

That one thing that was said, and I happen to go to the Essex County, if you will, at the courthouse where Sheila was, Sheila Oliver was being honored lying in state there.

And there weren't a lot of people, it was late in the day.

And the reason I mention that is because so many people who were there were not big name politicians.

They were regular folks who knew Sheila Oliver as a person.

- Yeah.

- And for those of us who knew, she on a personal level she was as real as it gets.

And one last thing before we throw to this clip from 2020, the last interview unfortunately that I was able to do with Lieutenant Governor, Sheila Oliver, it was said by our great friend, Reverend Buster Soaries.

When he said about Sheila Oliver, she was very pro-black, but that did not mean she was anti-white.

This was somebody who understood race, equity, social justice, using politics for good, in ways that very few elected officials ever had been able to do.

So that's Rick Thigpen.

He knew Sheila better than most.

And thank you Rick.

- Thank you.

- This is an interview from 2020 with Sheila Oliver talking about race, education, and why public service matters so much.

The late great Sheila Oliver.

- Is it as hard to talk honestly about racism as it appears to me to be?

- Absolutely, Steve, it is a difficult conversation.

And, you know, being an African American, I think we need to have honest conversations amongst ourselves because we are racist, too.

- [Steve] What do you mean by that?

- That African Americans also hold stereotypical view of Caucasians, of Asians, of people that come from African nations, people that come from Caribbean nations.

I think racism is broader than just black versus white in the United States, and I attribute it all to lack of experience.

So, yes, like you, Essex County.

I have friends in, you know, the western part of the County, but they know me.

I know them, I've had history with them.

I've worked with them.

And I think what the issue gets to be, we continue to have such segregated communities in our state, but it has to do with the unequal distribution of wealth.

That's really what it has to do with.

- When the Lieutenant Governor talks about segregated communities, it's interesting.

Essex County is an incredibly diverse county, but people are segregated.

I happen to live in Montclair, born and raised in Newark, New Jersey.

Montclair is a relatively integrated community, but there are pockets of segregation.

- Yes.

- Essex County is a diverse County, but African Americans disproportionately live in Newark, East Orange, Irvington, et cetera.

We're separate, we don't know each other's experiences.

- That's correct.

- Is that part of the reason why it's so hard?

- It is.

And then, Steve, when you think about young people, when they're socialized, and you know, they're going through development, they're in segregated schools.

And you know, when I was running The Leaguers in Newark- - A great not-for-profit organization committed to education and promoting leadership among young people.

- Yes, but one of the things I made it a point of was giving experiences, travel experiences within the state and outside of the state to introduce kids that were living in Newark and East Orange and Irvington the opportunity to see a different kind of life, a different kind of community.

There are many urban kids growing up in urban school systems.

They've never been to Monmouth County or Ocean County or Salem County, Cumberland, and I think that this creates the divide.

As a legislator, I found that to be true because our state legislature is built up around regionalism.

And when I was the speaker, I made a commitment to travel- - [Steve] Speaker of the Assembly.

- Yes, I made it my business to travel to all 40 districts, legislative districts, and I got a real education.

It made me a better legislator because I understood that Salem County is probably the poorest to be found.

Everybody thinks it's Newark.

Everyone thinks it's Trenton, or, you know, it's- - [Steve] Camden.

- Camden at the time, but poverty exists in other parts of the state.

I always say the Raritan River is the great divide in New Jersey.

If you live above it, you know, one New Jersey, if you live below it, you know, another, and I think that contributes to this whole issue of racism.

your philosophy of leading, your paradigm, if you will, of leading, your approach to leading is modeled and shaped by what?

- The many mentors that I had during my teen years.

And I'll start with my family because my family was, you know, now they have hashtag stay woke.

My parents were woke, and so at an early age, we had an extended family that was made up of all kinds of people.

My mother's best friend was a Jewish woman from Sheepshead Bay, New York.

So, I think that the things that I ideologically adopted at an early age contributed to leadership.

I also think that I'm a Baby Boomer and I think I developed early a strong work ethic.

We often think that young people today don't have a strong work ethic, but I think a strong work ethic contributes to your ability to be a good youth leader.

And ironically, Mary Burch, who was the founder of The Leaguers.

-Of The Leaguers, right.

She gave me a lesson in 1980 that I have never forgotten.

She said to me, Sheila, if you are going to embark on a life of public service, then you must develop an alligator hide.

I have never forgotten that.

And I developed an alligator hide.

The other thing that's important to be a good leader is something I had on a T-shirt from a conference I went to, and it said leadership is the only ship that doesn't return to port when there's a storm.

So that'’s- - Translate that for us, Lieutenant Governor.

Leadership is the only ship that does not re- - Return to port when there's a storm.

- And that says what to you?

- It says to me that no matter what is going on on a given day, no matter what obstacles and challenges might be represented, you just persevere and you work through it.

It creates a better leader in you.

And the other thing I think that I learned as a leadership characteristic, and I learned this from another person you and I know, Alex Plinio, who was at Prudential.

- [Steve] Prudential for many years.

- Alex taught me the concept that win-lose is not a good paradigm.

Win-win is a good paradigm.

So, in the leadership roles I have had to fulfill, I have often stressed working towards win-win, that everyone walks away from the table with something.

Might not be with 100% of what they want, but everyone gained something.

And I think these are the things that contribute to someone being a good leader.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- I think about the fact that we shared a lot of the same values and we were concerned about the issues that affected communities that have been under represented, whose voices have been marginalized, or who just weren't even heard.

Whether or not it was the housing space, the reentry space, the criminal justice reform space, whether or not it was children and families.

We shared that, and she was an advocate for all of New Jersey's citizens, but particularly for those whose lives needed to be touched and lifted up by the resources that government would bring.

I mean she did it admirably.

We, we had the kind of relationship where we would just reach out and talk to one another.

Sometimes something would come as a result of that and sometimes it would just be touching base to see how, how we were doing.

But she was a really true public servant and I am blessed to have, to have been able to call her my friend, to have worked with her in the legislature, to even have worked with her when I was in the executive branch, and she was working for a nonprofit working on housing issues.

That's how far we go back.

We all lost a friend when she passed away the other day.

because she was a friend to so many people and dedicated most of her life to public service.

I remember when she was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

And that's when I first met Sheila.

And before you know it she just rose to one position after another, always dedicated to making the lives of people easier.

She did a lot of work in the inner cities and dedicated hours upon hours of her life to improving the lot of our fellow citizens.

I never heard Sheila complain and I know she had a difficult time during the end, but there was never a complaint out of her mouth.

She was a wonderful person, a wonderful Lieutenant Governor, a wonderful assembly speaker, a wonderful freeholder.

She was a wonderful person and she'll be missed by the state of New Jersey.

- I don't know how many people realize how much she gave particularly to the women of New Jersey.

She was the co-chair of our ad hoc women's group that spent quite a few months looking into issues around sexual harassment on both the government and in the political environment.

She knew how to be in the back room of power and yet not always go along, but how you move the agenda forward, which is an art form.

We texted back and forth every so often.

And I looked over some of the texts today, particularly the one where she said to me and I think I'm quoting pretty accurately, "Women should be at the table and in the room and in the fray".

And Sheila was never afraid of the fray.

- Sheila, you know was, you know a true friend.

Sheila was a role model.

Sheila was a believer, you know in the adage "Dare to dream", you know and she took that from she Shirley Chisholm and Sheila dared to dream about tomorrow.

You know, she lived a, you know, a life of public service, you know, and as she dreamed to achieve that goal of, you know, superior public service, she did it day by day.

Sheila is gonna be a tremendous loss.

You know, we honored her with a tremendous sendoff and, you know she is gonna be missed by me and so many thousands of people.

Sheila, you know, Sheila was my friend.

I love Sheila Oliver, and, you know I, I just send my condolences to her family.

So Sheila Oliver, it's interesting, "The Star-Ledger," for those who still read newspapers, and on NJ.com, this was the front page headline, "She was our Queen."

That was a statehouse farewell to Sheila Oliver.

This is the day before I was honored, not honored.

It was sad to go to Essex County.

This is Essex County bids farewell to Sheila Oliver or the "County's Trailblazing Daughter," it says here.

And this is the thing that struck me when I went to the Essex County Courthouse to, along with thousands of others, to pay tribute, to remember Sheila Oliver and pray for her family and wish them all the best in this difficult time.

Let me put this in perspective.

The thing about Sheila Oliver that I remember, and I interviewed her so many times, you saw during this program an interview we did a couple years back.

You know, in politics today, and I'm not gonna get on my soapbox but I wanna make this clear, it's nasty, it's personal, we're polarized.

People are not just disagreeing on issues but being disagreeable with each other, attacking each other, Political violence at an all-time high political rhetoric, hyperbole about your enemy.

Not just someone you disagree with, they become your enemy.

That's everything Sheila Oliver was not, a class act.

She believed strongly in what she believed, then she fought Governor Christie when she thought he was wrong.

He fought her, but it was never personal.

It was always on the merits, always on the issues.

Always fighting for what she believed even if someone believed something different.

She never demonized anyone else.

So we've been doing a series for years called "Democracy at a Crossroads."

It's way past the crossroads, it's democracy hanging on by a thread.

And it's even more challenging now because we've lost people like Sheila Oliver who are decent, caring, whether you agreed with her or not on the issues, you always knew that she was a patriot, that she cared about this country.

She cared about representative democracy and she did it in a way that very few ever have done in the state of New Jersey or the nation.

Lieutenant Governor, former Speaker of the House Sheila Oliver, a life well-served.

She did it right.

She made a difference.

We remember Sheila Oliver.

- Sentimantal music - [Narrator] One on One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Holy Name.

Choose New Jersey.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

The North Ward Center.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

And by Seton Hall University.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by ROI-NJ.

At the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, we are working now more than ever to fill the emptiness caused by hunger.

We are the state's largest anti-hunger organization.

And together with our 800 plus community partners, we are committed to delivering food, help, and hope, to our hundreds and thousands of neighbors in need.