Memorial Mass Today For Hoboken Deputy Fire Chief, Museum Founder

HOBOKEN, NJ —Late Deputy Fire Chief Bill Bergin was respected enough throughout his 31-year career in the department that he was appointed the city's public safety director in 2007 to help make sense of a law enforcement scandal. At that time, the city was investigating potential misconduct among the Police Department's SWAT team that had made national news. Bergin ultimately disbanded the SWAT team.

Bergin was born in Hoboken in 1939 and served in the Hoboken Fire Department from 1960 until 1991 , rising to the rank of deputy chief. He became the president of the firefighters' union and helped found the Hoboken Fire Museum, which today entertains and educates many a firetruck-obsessed toddler in town. He has also volunteered for fundraising projects to help the needy.

According to his obituary, Bergin passed away peacefully on Friday, Dec. 27, 2019 at Capital Health Medical Center, Pennington.

A special memorial mass will be held for him on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 11 a.m. at St. Francis Church, 308 Jefferson St. It's open to the public.

Bergin, who was 80 when he passed away, served in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1960. When he was honorably discharged, he began serving as a firefighter. He was also a member of the New Jersey Football Officials' Association and officiated football, basketball, baseball games.

Starting in 1979, he helped work at the Hoboken Firefighters Museum, carved out of an 1881 firehouse on Bloomfield Street.

In 2012, he was interviewed for a Hoboken Historical Museum oral history project, and his recollections were turned into a published book. He recalled that even in grade school, he used to volunteer to serve coffee and soup to local firefighters after they fought a blaze.

He also recalled some of the athletes he met in New Jersey over the years.

But some of his recollections were dark. He talked about Hoboken's notorious suspicious fires in the 1980s, during gentrification and condo conversions. Many families were burned out of their apartment buildings, and dozens of children and adults died. No one was ever convicted of setting the fires.

"I’d say that 80 percent of the time you pulled up, somebody was yelling, 'There’s somebody in the building! There’s somebody in the building!'" he told interviewer Holly Metz. "...A few times the accelerant was found before it was actually used. Somebody would report that they smelled gasoline, and sure enough, you’d get there, and the hallway would be loaded with this accelerant; but, for whatever reason, it was never lit."

Bergin also recalled being called to the now defunct Maxwell House Coffee plant after two men fell into a steaming tank and passed away.

On a Facebook page called Hoboken Fire Department Memories, one community member wrote about him, "He was the soul of Hoboken's Fire Department in my book. I have so many wonderful memories of Billy. His 'Quack' for visitors to the fire museum never failed to make me laugh and his sweet nature and interactions with anyone he met makes me miss him more. "

Bergin's obituary notes, "He was the beloved husband to Margaret (nee Glaser) for sixty years, cherished father to his two daughters, Corinne Bergin and Allison Gaspari. A great joy in his life were his two granddaughters, Alexandria Potosnak and Zoie Gaspari; his world and the Best Poppy ever. Also surviving are nieces, Nikki Ann Corrado and Ginny Bishop, nephews, Edward Radigan, George DePalma, Anthony, Greg and Bill Herenda and many cousins, great nieces and nephews. He was also predeceased by his beloved sisters, Audrey Radigan, Adelaide DePalma and Grace Herenda and niece, Lynn Maroney Herenda."

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be sent to the Lewy Body Dementia Association, 912 Killian Hill Road SW, Lilburn, GA 30047. Arrangements by Failla-McKnight Memorial Home, Hoboken.