Michael Fabrizio, a central player in Morristown’s revitalization, was eulogized Tuesday as a humble visionary, mentor and family man, who faced a grim prognosis with quiet fortitude.
“We come here to celebrate the life of this loving husband, father, colleague and friend to so many, this gracious man, of great courage and gentle love,” Msgr. Kenneth Lasch told a Who’s Who of Morristown movers and shakers at Fabrizio’s funeral, in St. Joseph’s Church in Mendham.
The Morristown Parking Authority executive director collapsed on June 15, 2021, as he was leaving Roots Steakhouse on South Street.
He had stopped there briefly after leading the first in-person meeting of the MPA board since the pandemic; participants described that meeting as upbeat and joyful.
Fabrizio was 55. For several years he had lived with pulmonary hypertension and scleroderma, a diagnosis he knew would be very hard to beat.
As the founding executive director of the Morristown Partnership, Fabrizio helped broker the redevelopment of the former Epstein’s department store. Luxury condos and apartments and upscale restaurants, shops and taverns transformed the downtown near the historic Morristown Green during his 22-year tenure there.
“He was a man of vision,” said Monsignor Lasch.
“Look at Morristown, how it’s been revitalized… He was ‘Mr. Morristown,'” the priest said, adding wryly: “Sorry, Tim Dougherty.”
‘YOU CAN’T MEASURE HIS IMPACT’
Mayor Dougherty, in attendance with his wife Mary, did not disagree afterward with the monsignor’s characterization of Fabrizio.
“You can’t measure his impact,” the mayor said of his longtime poker partner and fishing buddy.
They were introduced before Tim Dougherty entered politics, by then-Mayor Norman Bloch. Dougherty said he and Fabrizio would talk every day. He is grateful for an “amazing weekend” on Lake Champlain, for what turned out to be the last weekend of Fabrizio’s life.
Video: Msgr. Kenneth Lasch eulogizes Michael Fabrizio:
“He was just an all-around genuine human being, one of a kind,” said Mayor Dougherty, who drove home from a Vero Beach vacation to be a pallbearer. “I’ve been numb all week.”
Fondly, he recalled Fabrizio’s quirky sense of humor, and his devotion to his triplets, Gabriella, Zachary and Matthew, now in college.
“Michael touched a lot of people’s lives in a lot of different ways,” the mayor said. “Mine was that quiet time on the lake, fishing and having those deep conversations about life and family.”
A GoFundMe drive is raising money to help the Fabrizio children complete their education.
PROMISES TO KEEP
Mourners on Tuesday included current and former trustees and employees of the parking authority and the Partnership; members of Dougherty’s administration, including future judge Vij Pawar; supporters of the mayor’s opponent from this month’s Democratic primary; and people from the real estate- and development worlds.
A licensed realtor, Fabrizio also was executive director of the Pompton Lakes Redevelopment Authority and a consultant to West Orange.
He almost certainly would have shuddered at the “Mr. Morristown” moniker. Fabrizio preferred working behind the scenes, and letting others take the bows. Earlier this month, he insisted on giving an MPA employee center stage in an ad campaign on MorristownGreen.com.
Video: Final thoughts about Michael Fabrizio:
In recent days, a cross-section of people has shared stories about ways Fabrizio helped them. His modesty and skill as a listener enabled him to move easily among “the high and the low,” and made him an ideal mentor, according to Lasch.
“Mentors have a unique gift of challenging without hassling. Of affirming without condoning wrongdoing. Of prodding rather than pushing. Of bringing the best out of others without taking credit for the goodness that God has placed in them,” the monsignor said.
And good mentors learn from those they have mentored. “That’s what made Mike well respected,” Lasch said.
Born in Orange and raised in Maplewood, Fabrizio met his wife Lisa when they were students at Seton Hall University. He studied English. The monsignor recited Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Fabrizio’s favorite poet, Robert Frost:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
“Mike has traveled many miles in his short time on earth,” Lasch concluded. “We love him for who he was and what he did. Time will pass. But the heart will never forget.”
Michael J. Fabrizio was predeceased by his mother, Frieda (Coppola) Fabrizio. In addition to his wife of 28 years, Lisa DeRosa Fabrizio, and their three children, he is survived by brothers Ralph Fabrizio of El Cerrito CA and Dr. Lawrence Fabrizio of Chester NJ; sisters Mary Lynn Wallington of Ranson WV, and Carrie Steinbauer and Lois Corcoran, both of Maplewood; and many nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in Michael Fabrizio’s memory be made to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association and the Scleroderma Foundation.