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Veteran Carusi is Stone Harbor's Outstanding Citizen of the Year
Albert J. Carusi recipient of the Stone Harbor Realty Owners Association Person of the Year Award
Albert J. “Al” Carusi is proof that “retired” doesn’t necessarily mean retiring.
For seemingly tireless involvement in community activities in Stone Harbor, the Realty Owners Association (ROA) of Stone Harbor named Carusi its Outstanding Citizen of the Year. Carusi, who is completing his second year as a member of Stone Harbor Borough Council, accepted the award in a joint meeting of the ROA and council in September.
Almost every year since 1991, the ROA has presented the award to a person who has established a record of “service to the community in various fields.” The ROA cited Carusi’s “leadership, planning and organizational skills” – especially in spearheading restoration of the building housing Stephen C. Ludlam Post 331 of the American Legion that led to its being designated a National Historic Landmark.
“As vice commander and then commander of American Legion Post 331 of Avalon and Stone Harbor for 11 years, [Carusi] led that organization in a long-term project to restore the post’s U.S. Life Saving Station building to its original state,” said the ROA’s Art Faint. “Today, Post 331’s U.S. Life Saving Station is on the state and national registers of historic places and serves as a beacon of pride for not only Stone Harbor but for the entire Seven Mile Island.”
The building, at 117th Street and Second Avenue, houses a museum of military artifacts and archives from World War II and the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Carusi, 70, is a former director of manufacturing operations and director of engineering at Lockheed Martin, RCA and General Electric. Originally from the West Philadelphia area, he and his family moved to South
Jersey in 1956 to enter a building-supply business. He is a 1959 graduate of Wildwood Catholic High School and a 1963 graduate of Seton Hall, where he completed the U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He served in the Army from 1963 until ’69 as Commanding Officer of Armored Tank Company “C” of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade of the 50th Armored Division and Executive Officer of the Infantry Company, 50th Armored Division.
The first couple of years after he and his wife Betty retired to Stone Harbor from Cherry Hill, Carusi said he tried doing the typical retiree thing – he went to the beach and read books.
“But I found I missed the action and working with people and getting things done and accomplished,” said Carusi, who started serving as an usher at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church and then became active in the American Legion Post 331.
