- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

PSEG Foundation.

NJM Insurance Group.

Serving New Jersey’s drivers, homeowners and business owners for more than 100 years.

The New Jersey Education Association.

United Airlines.

Kean University.

Where Cougars climb higher.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

And by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

Keeping communities informed and connected.

And by ROI-NJ.

Informing and connecting businesses in New Jersey.

- 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.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

_ 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) - This is "Remember Them."

I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Jacqui Tricarico.

Hey, Jacqui, we're gonna remember someone else who we knew well, but is not someone as recognizable as some other folks.

on Remember Them, Marc Berson.

We talked to Frank Giantomasi, who is a terrific lawyer, and was a great personal friend of Marc Berson.

Both served, Marc was the Chairman of the Board of Newark Beth, part of the RWJBarnabas Health Family, and also the Chairman of the Board of RWJBarnabas Health and Kerri Levine.

Kerri Berson Levine, who is Marc's daughter.

Marc needs to be remembered for a lot of things, but what struck you the most?

- There are some things in some people's legacy that we can visually see and some that we can't.

And you can both see his legacy and not see some of the things that he did that's part of his legacy, but the things that you can see are so many iconic buildings throughout the City of Newark.

- He was a developer.

- He was a developer, and he created so much in the city that made the city better and pushed the city forward in a lot of great ways.

So, we get to hear more about that and how Kerri, his daughter, has followed in her father's footsteps in many ways, being a part of the Fidelco Group, which you had mentioned, too, is also a funder of our programming here at the Caucus Educational Corporation.

- Yeah, Marc was awesome.

I mean, he just, he saw a vision for what Newark could be, particularly Downtown, that others never saw.

That's just one of the reasons he was terrific and why we remember our great friend who was always supportive of our work.

Marc Berson.

(stimulating music) - Where the heck does the obsession with innovation and creativity for you come from, Marc?

- (laughs) The interest in keep doing things that are new and different.

It's a challenge.

You know, I was trained as, in the law, and one of the things that was always why I loved it so much was each case was new.

Each case was, you had to be strategic.

I do jigsaw puzzles as a hobby, and you know, fitting out space, looking at businesses, and problems, and giving new approaches, innovative approaches is just, it's something that comes very natural and what keeps me at my game.

- Talking about a very special person, Marc Berson.

We're joined by someone who knew him well, very well, a colleague and a friend, Frank Giantomasi, co-chair of the executive committee at CSG Law and also chair of the board at Newark Beth, part of the RWJBarnabas Health Family, one of our, to disclose, longtime underwriters.

Good to see you, Frank.

- Great to see you, Steve.

- What made Marc so special?

- Many, many facets to Marc Berson.

I have to always start out with his love of family.

I have to then follow up by his incredible philanthropic drive, and then his acumen as a businessman, but a businessman that was different in the context that he always wanted a resolution that was beneficial to both sides of a transaction.

He wanted to make a deal where everybody benefited, and that those were the three tenants of Marc that I admired and loved.

On top of that, we were friends, we were personal friends.

We would vacation together, and his family became one with my family.

- Frank, Marc's love of Newark, development of Newark, connection to NJPAC and everything Newark comes from came from where?

- Marc was born in Newark.

He was born in Beth Israel Hospital.

He lived in Newark for a period of time, and then his dad moved the family to Maplewood where he finished his education.

But Marc was a child of and a lover of Newark.

He never forgot where he came from.

And his whole life, in his early formative years, was focused and centered on Newark.

And as Newark had its troubles after the riots and things of that nature, Marc made a commitment as he was becoming more and more successful, that he was gonna take some of his success and he was gonna share it with the citizenry and the people of Newark to help make Newark what was the Newark he remembered and until the day of his death, that was foremost in his mind.

- Frank, along those lines, you succeeded Marc as the chair of the board at the Beth.

He was the chair of RWJBarnabas Health, the chair of the Beth before that.

His connection to the healthcare community but specifically the Beth.

Talk about it, please.

- Well, Marc's love of medicine was second to his love of business.

He was kind of a mini doctor in the parlance because he really loved the science, he loved the care, and he loved, because of the way he was, that healthcare helped people.

He thought that providing good healthcare to the citizens of Newark was gonna be part of the solution to make Newark what it could be.

And Marc asked me about 14 years ago to join him on the board.

And I was honored, Steve, I was honored.

- At the Beth?

- Yeah, yeah, at the Beth, I'm sorry.

And I was honored.

And then we just worked together there to make the Beth bigger and better.

Marc created Partners in Progress Dinner, which celebrated business in Newark and which celebrated the RWJ, the system in which celebrated the doctors and the staff and the clinicians.

Marc really tried to always bring people together.

So he brought all the disciplines together to ensure that healthcare would improve in Newark through his efforts at the Beth.

- Let me also say, to disclose, I've been honored for years to be an MC for the Partners in Progress event at NJPAC that Marc loved so much, along with Frank and the other folks at the Beth.

It is a fundraiser for the work that the Beth is doing.

Let me also ask you this, Frank.

Marc never wanted a lot of attention, never sought attention.

For those of us who knew him well, he was soft spoken.

How the heck was he such a great leader who did not raise his voice and did not really seek any attention?

- Marc was a calm man, but he had an inner strength that you'd feel when you were in a meeting with him or when you were across a negotiating table with him and his articulate-ability, Steve, and his brain, his brain was so massive in its ability to digest and come up with solutions that you respected him from the minute that you met him.

You're right, he was unassuming.

Marc couldn't tell a joke.

(Steve laughing) He loved to be with people, but he never wanted to be the guy in the spotlight.

He enjoyed being at the table and sharing the stories and listening.

But he was content to be part of a scene, not be the prominent player in the scene.

- So well said.

Last question before I let you go.

- Yeah.

- There are so many, not just buildings, but people in those buildings paying rent and being a part of the downtown community in Newark who didn't really know Marc and understand his impact.

What will be the legacy of Marc Berson, particularly in the city of Newark that he loved so much, not just in those buildings, but in the economic development, the strength of those communities that, again, don't have his name on those buildings, but they wouldn't be there and the development would never happen without him.

Please, Frank, - If it wasn't for his fortitude and his strong backbone, the buildings that he developed, 1 Washington, 494 Broad, 550 Broad, these are iconic addresses.

The whole Market Street development that he built with the purpose of socializing to support the Prudential arena.

You know, he's got restaurants, he's got residences.

Marc was a visionary.

And while you can't see a name on a building, Steve, you just walk on any of the main arteries in Newark and you feel what he's done because he took what I would call dilapidated buildings in need of repair and support and he infused money and ideas, not just the money that he put in.

It was the ideas that he put in to bring these buildings back to a modern day life.

Marc never looked at the buildings and said, "This is what it was."

He looked at these buildings and he said, "This is what it could be."

And so you feel Marc's success through the vitality of the buildings.

- That's leadership.

That's Frank Giantomasi.

And also let me disclose, I've been doing leadership coaching at CSG Law and, you know, talk about leaders in law, leaders in business, leaders in our lives whose legacy is longstanding even when they're not with us.

That was Marc Berson.

Thank you, Frank, we're gonna be talking to Kerri Berson- - Oh, that's great.

- After this, right after this.

- Thank you my friend, we'll talk soon.

- See you.

This is "Remember Them".

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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

- We continue to remember Marc Berson, talking to Kerri Berson Levine, Principal of the Fidelco Group, one of our longtime partners.

Kerri, thank you for joining us.

- Thanks for having me.

- So your dad and Newark, why a love story going all the way back to the beginning?

He had such passion for the city.

Talk about that.

- Passion for the city.

I think, you know, he always used to tell us how he would ride his bike through, you know, the city and through the towns that he grew up in.

And I guess think, you know, think what could I do?

What was I gonna do?

How could I have more than I had now as a little boy?

And that definitely translated into giving everybody directions how to get everywhere.

We've all experienced it.

You know, Waze would be here, we'd all be sitting on our phone with Waze or Uber.

We would be taking an Uber and he would be like, so you turn left at James Street and then at 494, right with the Cable Vision sign, you make a right.

And we're like, okay.

You know, it was just in him.

- And so you talk about the neighborhood downtown and then his connection to NJPAC, such a leader there.

When he walked into NJPAC, what was it like for him?

- Home.

- Because?

- You know, it was the beginning of downtown's revitalization.

It was the group of people who came together to build the PAC as much as it was the transformation that the PAC would be for the city, the crime, the redevelopment, the center, the location.

It was just like the beginning of a new, and, you know, the PAC is so transformational and at the center of the location that's needed to connect Prudential Center all the way down to 280, you know, where so many of his strategic buildings were, 1 Wash with Audible.

- 1 Washington, right.

- And Rutgers Business School.

Yeah, 1 Washington Park.

You had Bears Stadium, which he had a hand in at one time.

And then with 550 and what he was doing, you know, unfortunately at the end, there were to be pathways behind it, connecting of course to the PAC and the great renovations that they're doing, you know, on the campus.

So it was just a connector.

First it's about how do you solve some of the crime and fill some of these gaps and the voids that are happening within New Jersey?

We need to create an arts center for New Jersey and, you know, set a standard, our mission, do something completely different.

And it was about a few of the, you know, men who are so involved in Newark coming together and in the state, of course.

But it became so much more.

- You know, it's funny you talk about things that are connected downtown, but also Marc was a connector.

He connected me to Opportunity Project.

I would not have known about Opportunity Project.

Tell folks why Opportunity Project, as a co-founder, it was so important to Marc.

- It was obviously so important to him because my brother, his son, suffered from a traumatic brain injury and there was a lack of services and programs to go to after the medical care was over.

If you're lucky enough to survive, your life is forever changed after a brain injury.

And most people don't realize that, fortunately or unfortunately, unless it happens to them.

But then of course it became a gap in the hospital system.

And so it was interesting to the system and that was really my dad's legacy was everything he did with RWJBarnabas starting Newark Beth.

- And Newark Beth tied to RWJBarnabas overall.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Talk about.

- Now the project is a part of the system.

- Yeah, last question.

And I couldn't ask Frank Giantomasi who talked about your dad as well.

As a father and a family man, how should he be remembered?

How will you remember him?

- As my dad, I mean, just as that.

You know, he was my person, like my best friend.

I was always with him, I even wanted to work with him.

I just, he was my person.

He was the best father and the best family man.

But I think he was that person to so many people.

- To a lot of us.

- Yeah.

- He was a mentor, a friend, an advisor, a confidant.

Hey Kerri, thank you for helping folks who may not have ever met Marc Berson understand why he matters, why his legacy still matters in so many ways.

Thank you, Kerri.

- Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Stay with us, Jacqui and I will be right back.

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

- Did you start out of your car with food?

- [Kathleen] No, I Did.

- You, come on.

(Kathleen laughs) - No, I really did.

I, - You are the largest Community FoodBank in the State, but you started in '75 out of a car.

Tell me how that happens.

- Well, I was not planning (laughs) to have a big operation.

I was just trying to find people in my area who might be having a problem with not enough food, so- - [Steve] Why?

- Well, I gave my phone number out to the local hospital, the Welfare Department, Houses of Worship, anywhere that I thought they would be in contact with them.

We, I live in Summit, and there were some people (laughs) who said to me, "You're new to Summit.

We don't have hungry people here."

(laughs) We did then, we do now.

And- - More now.

- Oh, yes, more now everywhere.

- Worse.

- Yes.

I mean, we just distributed this past year, almost 40 million pounds of food and groceries.

So much more than my car could ever hold, and yet it wasn't enough.

- We now remember someone who really made a difference in the lives of so many, particularly those who are dealing with food insecurity, hunger issues.

Kathleen DiChiara.

And we talked to Josh Weinrich, who was in fact, very much involved with the Community Food Bank of New Jersey as a Board of Trustee member.

We had Kathleen on many, many times.

I think we saw a clip coming into this segment of an interview with Kathleen.

She mattered in a lot of ways, but what struck you about what she gave back and how it made a difference?

- Starting in her car, knowing that there was a need in her community for people who needed- - 1975.

- 1975, taking her station wagon around and handing out food.

And from that to what the Community FoodBank is today, handing out 100 million meals annually.

You know, one of the largest anti-hunger, anti-poverty organizations, and her legacy lives on through this organization and the work that continues to be done to help the most vulnerable here in New Jersey.

- Yeah, 2013, New Jersey Hall of Fame honoree, someone who we do a series called "Making a Difference," and, boy, Kathleen made a difference every day in the lives of so many.

Let's honor her right now.

(stimulating music) - We're now joined by Josh Weinreich, who is a board member at the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.

Josh, good to see ya.

- Nice to see ya, Steve.

- Our mutual friend, Kathleen DiChiara, what made her so special and what impact did she have on the state and nation?

- Well, where to start, I mean, I think at her beginning, 1975, you know, outta the back of her station wagon with some donated food from church, she distributed into Newark and that was the beginning for her that, you know, never ended.

You know, Kathleen saw a problem and led by example from the very beginning and if you just, you know the story, I think, as well as I do, Amir, I think seven years or so later, we incorporated the food bank and from the back of her station wagon that first year, you know, we distributed 150,000 pounds of food and I think when, you know, you think about Kathleen's story and she told it as she went, you know, that she didn't do this alone.

What she was, she identified something so fundamental that there were people desperately in need of food and she knew that there were resources available and she figured out how to, not just to connect those two things, but how to raise awareness and build a team so that she could do that and scale and that's what was really remarkable.

I mean, if you think about, you know, building something big and, you know, in our daily life, getting people to agree on anything, it's complicated.

I mean, complicated.

- But, Josh, let me ask you this, beyond her skills as an organizer, building a team, raising money, being persuasive, and trust me, as a friend and, you know, someone who had Kathleen on so many times, it was hard to say no to her.

But the question, I wish I would've asked her this more on the air, why do you think she cared so much about so many people she never really knew who were struggling without food?

- Yeah, you know, I mean, that's a good question to ask her.

I guess a clue might be, when you talked to Kathleen about anything, her family crept up into the conversation.

We all knew more about her family and what was going on and how much she loved and cared for them and I think when she thought about other people who couldn't provide for their families at the most fundamental level, I think there was nothing more abhorrent to her and I think that's it.

I also think there's once you see something in the way she saw it, that this was, you know, a huge problem and it was solvable, you know, she was driven to make others see that.

She was almost like, "How can you not see that?"

I mean, one vignette, I remember early on, I joined the food bank about 20 years ago, and when I first joined, one of the things that, you know, I was uncomfortable with was asking others for help, which I wasn't good at it and I didn't like it and I talked to Kathleen about that.

I was like, "Hey, gimme another role."

You know?

"Gimme a broom."

You know?

And Kathleen sat me down and said, she said, "Josh, you're not asking people for help.

"You are giving people an opportunity "to do something that is more important "than most of the things they do "in a given day or week or more "and they should be telling you, 'Thank you.'"

Now, first, you know, I kinda laughed, but she wasn't joking and I internalized- - She was right.

- She was totally right, and it was so heartwarming.

One of her legacies is that when people are asked and they understand that they can play an important role to change people's life, to reduce misery, they're delighted and the goodwill that comes from that is huge and the fact that they're not a friend of the food bank or not giving is almost always 'cause they're not aware of it.

They don't know about it.

- What do you think, Josh, what do you think Kathleen would think and how do you believe she would act as a leader given our circumstances in 2025?

- Kathleen would not be at a loss.

Kathleen was so focused on mission, on what the task in front of us was and I had asked her this question a long time ago, there's many different disruptions that have happened over, you know, many of the last 50 years for sure, and Kathleen said it starts with the hunger, it starts with food and so she was never at a loss of what do we do?

There's people out that are hungry, we do what we can.

Another way, Steve, to look at that question is, you know, now the food bank is putting out about 100 million pounds of food a year but we also know we're probably missing 180 million, is in a good estimate, of the meals we're missing.

And instead- - You're not missing meals, you're missing people.

- Meaning the meals that are missing.

Feeding America helps to do demographics.

- People are going hungry.

- Yes, yeah.

- Are we better off, making progress, or is it worse than ever?

- First of all, Kathleen taught us to count what we can do and then shape what we can't.

And so the answer is, we're putting out 90 million meals, 100 million pounds, today, and that's what we're able to accomplish.

There are more than that missing meals that we still have in front of us.

Yes, with the changing landscape, there's gonna be all kinds of curve balls, all kinds of new cooperation required to pull together to, you know, address that and Kathleen would say, "Head down, let's get at it."

The other legacy that Kathleen left us beyond just food is that she showed that a community pulling together, what we can accomplish and that ability, it tells us, you know, we can accomplish anything and this is one amazing example right in front of us.

-Hey Josh, thank you.

Thank you for helping us remember Kathleen DiChiara.

You know, she never sought a lot of attention, it was never about her, no big ego, just cared deeply from the back of her station wagon back in 1975, saw a need, didn't talk about it and complain about it, didn't ask or expect someone else to do it, she stepped up with a lot of other people.

For everyone, particularly Jacqui Tricarico and our team at Remember Them and One-on-One.

We thank you for watching.

We'll always remember Kathleen DiChiara.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

PSEG Foundation.

NJM Insurance Group.

The New Jersey Education Association.

United Airlines.

Kean University.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

And by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by ROI-NJ.

- (Narrator) New Jersey is home to the best public schools in the nation, and that didn't happen by accident.

It's the result of parents, educators and communities working together year after year to give our students a world class education.

No matter the challenge, because parents and educators know that with a shared commitment to our public schools, our children can learn, grow and thrive.

And together, we can keep New Jersey's public schools the best in the nation.