New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., a 14-term incumbent and a fixture in his hometown of Paterson for more than four decades, has died. News of his death on Wednesday was announced on his social media account. Pascrell, who was 87, had been in and out of the hospital with an illness recently. A lifelong resident of Paterson, Pascrell served in the Army and Army Reserve after college and graduate school. He worked as a teacher in Paterson and served on the Board of Education there from 1979 to 1982 before going on to the state Legislature .He was Paterson’s mayor from 1990 to 1996, when he ran for Congress.
