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Passaic River Loses a Friend

Bob DeVita, longtime manager of the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s River Restoration Department, passed away last week. I never met Bob in person, but I interviewed him several times for This American River. We talked mostly about Bob’s work managing the PVSC’s  two skimmer boats, which remove tons of floating garbage from the river’s surface every year. But Bob was instrumental in creating many PVSC programs that brought people to the Passaic. He was also a wonderful interview subject – generous and funny, a great storyteller, and clearly passionate about his work with the Passaic. “There is an enormous void left in not only the entire Passaic River community, but also in the lives of those that knew Bob,” wrote Tom Pietrykoski, a PVSC colleague, in an email announcing Bob’s death. “It is now up to us to carry on his legacy.”

There will be a memorial service on Saturday, October 3rd from 2-8pm at the Elks Lodge, 50 Hinchman Avenue, in Wayne, N.J. October 3, 2009 would have been Bob DeVita’s 59th birthday.