Bud Bennett, Beloved Bloomingdale Volunteer, Will Be Laid to Rest Tuesday

Just six months after celebrating his 101st birthday, a man who devoted much of his life to the Bloomingdale community, Laurence "Bud" Bennett, died on Thursday.

A funeral mass will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St. Anthony's RC Church in Butler before a burial mass at the First Reformed Church Cemetery in Pompton Plains, according to an obituary on NorthJersey.com.

Bennett worked part-time as a tax assessor in the borough earlier in his life and had been a member of the Bloomingdale Volunteer Fire Department since 1956. He even continued to assist the firefighters monthly with the department's ziti dinner.

"I devote all my spare time to the fire department," he said last January.

The fire department threw a special birthday party for Bennett in 2011, marking his 100th birthday not long after he was celebrated by the Borough of Bloomingdale with an honorary day (Oct. 14 is "Bud Bennett Day") after being named Citizen of the Year. He was also voted by Tri-Boro Patch readers as the "Know Your Neighbor" they would most like to read an update on. Bennett  overwhelmingly, in our poll.

Read "'Bud' Still Blooming Even at 100" here.

Bennett has contributed so much to the community, the borough also decided to rename Woodward Avenue after him. Bennett was also the grand marshall of the Tri-Boro Little League Opening Day parade last year and threw one of the first pitches.

In October, Bennett celebrated his birthday with 14 of his closest friends at the Butler Family Restaurant & Diner. When asked if he did anything else special to celebrate his birthday, Bennett said "I had a ride on the old fire truck."

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