Frank Fulbrook, 64, Camden activist
He spent as much time in courtrooms as many lawyers, fighting for his crusades.
CAMDEN may be one of the poorest cities in the country, but it had Frank Fulbrook.
Frank, always described in news accounts as a "city activist," had a way of keeping politicians and government officials on their toes and on their guard in some 30 years as a Camden gadfly.
He was a familiar sight in the streets of the forsaken city, usually dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans with a straggly beard and hippie hair, wire-rimmed glasses low on his nose, and usually carrying a sheaf of papers pertaining to his latest legal battle.
And Frank had legal battles galore. It seems he spent as much time in courtrooms as some lawyers. He always had a crusade, and didn't seem the least perturbed that many of his causes went nowhere.
Frank Fulbrook, former member of the Camden Zoning Board and the Camden Library Board, neighborhood leader and maverick Democratic politician, died yesterday of a lung condition. He was 64 and lived in the Cooper-Grant section of Camden.
Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd said all of Camden was mourning his death.
"Camden lost one of its most dedicated and committed advocates," Redd said. "He always fought for what he believed was in the best interests of Camden residents and businesses."
"Frank was a tireless advocate for Camden and its residents," said a joint statement released by Fifth District legislators, Sen. Donald Norcross, Assemblyman Angel Fuentes and Assemblyman Gilbert "Whip" Wilson.
Frank was actively involved in one of his causes, fighting Camden's proposed curfew ordinance, as recently as two weeks ago.
He reacted disapprovingly of comments by Camden County Superior Court Judge Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina that the curfew ordinance was a "valid exercise of police power by a governing body."
Frank, who first challenged the ordinance in 2011, said the city's list of affected businesses used in the case was "pure garbage."
"For a Superior Court judge to accept that document as if it had validity is very revealing of that judge," Fulbrook said.
Obviously, Frank didn't hesitate to speak his mind. The ordinance is on hold pending appeals that Frank no doubt would have been involved in.
His death came as demolition of the historic Sears Building, which he fought to preserve, was nearing completion.
Campbell Soup Co. bought the 85-year-old Beaux Arts building for expansion of its headquarters and creation of an office park.
Fulbrook said the plan was flawed and needed to be revised or stopped. The Camden Planning Board didn't see it that way, and Frank took his case to the state Superior Court, and lost.
Frank, who owned rental properties for Rutgers University students, was a maverick in the Democratic Party. He convened political meetings in "what looks like a broom closet at his house," as an Inquirer writer described it in 2006.
He churned out leaflets, wrote letters to the editor, and was a teaching assistant in urban studies at Rutgers, from which he graduated. He was a former mailer for the Inquirer.
Frank was vice president of the Cooper-Grant Neighborhood Association and was proud of driving a 17-year-old Chevy Geo.
The neighborhood association teamed with a commercial developer in 2006 to build 28 houses on a piece of land once occupied by industrial buildings in Frank's neighborhood.
Last year, Frank advocated for the conversion of two vacant buildings in the city for use as a medical marijuana operation. It was turned down by the Camden Zoning Board.
"The city had an opportunity to create 50 to 100 new jobs with a preference for Camden residents, and they threw it away," he said. "So now we have two vacant buildings that aren't benefiting anybody."
Frank was in favor of legalizing marijuana as well as heroin and cocaine as a way to reduce crime. That stand was viciously parodied by his opponents when he ran for City Council in 2003.
Circulars depicted him standing by as an addict shot a needle into his veins. The circular accused him of using drugs himself, which he denied. A subsequent mailing showed him in a straitjacket having supported drug legalization.
"They've sunk to a new low," he said at the time.
Frank lost his bid for a Council seat from the Fourth District. He was defeated by Council president Angel Fuentes.
Another of Frank's causes was opposition to a plan to merge his alma mater, Rutgers, into Rowan University, which he called "beyond stupid - it's insane." The merger didn't happen.
Information about survivors and funeral services was not immediately available.