EVEN WITH HIS FEET PLANTED FIRMLY ON THE GROUND OF HIS BELOVED BOROUGH, A SOMERSET COUNTY MAYOR AND FORMER COMMERCIAL PILOT STILL SOARS

BY LAURA D.C. KOLNOSKI PHOTOS BY ROBERT NUZZIE

Problem-solving, teamwork, and remaining unflappable under pressure are invaluable skills for any governmental leader. Peapack- Gladstone Mayor William “Bill” Muller did not need on-the-job training in those attributes.

After graduating with a degree in Business Management from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, Muller bought flying lessons at Somerset Airport in Pluckemin. Armed with a Commercial Pilot certificate at 22, he gained a Flight Instructor license and taught others to fly. At 24, he was drafted into the Vietnam War, hired by United Airlines at 27, and laid off at 29. Muller used the GI Bill to secure additional pilot licenses, was recalled by United at 35 and became a captain at age 50.

“During my flying career, all UAL pilots had to attend a school on decision- making,” Mayor Muller recounted. “During a three-day training session in Command Leadership Resource Management, the objective was to teach each pilot that other people should always have input in problem solving— that there are several ‘right’ answers to a situation that will all produce a successful outcome. I believe that changed my life and has aided in working with politicians.”

As a youngster, Muller enjoyed tinkering with machinery. An uncle who was an aviation mechanic introduced him to the chief pilot of Eastern Airlines at New York’s JFK Airport. “I found my niche—thank you Uncle Teddy!” Muller said with a smile.

During his tenure as a pilot, he also served as chairman of the Professional Standards Committee, a peer-to-peer counseling group for pilots, and was on the selection committee for new-hire pilots. Muller flew for United for 32 years and “didn’t bend any metal.” During that career, he piloted domestic and international flights, traversing Europe, South America, and Asia.

When he retired, he had logged about 24,000 hours flying the Boeing 727, 737, 757, 767, and 777, and the Douglas DC8 and DC10.

“I worked with a very bright and motivated group of people, both pilots and flight attendants,” Muller said. “The machines are marvels in terms of design, redundancy, and performance. It’s hard to describe the fun of advancing the throttles on your way to Tokyo or skimming the clouds at 350 mph. We all took our jobs very seriously, but it sure was a kick.”

It also brought him his wife Lynn, a flight attendant. The couple had grown up near each other, met at work, and realized they had common acquaintances. He calls his spouse, who was once named Flight Attendant of the Year and was working in Barcelona during this interview, “very bright and hard-working. I’m very proud of her, UAL is lucky to have her for 43 years.”

When the time came in 1980 to find a home to raise their family, the Clinton residents drew a circle around JFK airport and decided to live within it. They chose Peapack-Gladstone in the northern Somerset County hills, named one of the best places to live in the state. The historic borough’s school system and bucolic small town character (only 2,600 residents) fit their needs. Peapack-Gladstone is known for its rural atmosphere, farms, and wooded terrain; home to horse farms and equestrian pursuits, including the Essex Hunt Club and Fox Hounds, the U.S. Equestrian Stables, and the renowned Far Hills Race Meeting, an annual steeplechase thoroughbred horse racing event held every October (and covered in Industry’s September-October issue) that draws over 35,000 spectators and participants.

In addition to being a filming location for the CBS soap opera The Guiding Light and 1962’s Oscar-winning movie The Miracle Worker, the borough has been home to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Richard B. Sellars, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson. Natirar, a 500-acre estate once owned by King Hassan II of Morocco is there as well, as is a sprawling Pfizer pharmaceuticals campus. Blairsden, a 2,000-squarefoot, 38-room mansion built in 1903 by a New York investment banker, overlooks Ravine Lake.

In March of 2003, Somerset County purchased Natirar (the reverse spelling of Raritan) from the Moroccan Royal Family. It is now in a public/private partnership with local resident and developer Bob Wojtowicz, who is transforming it into a multi-purpose, state-of-the-art hotel and event facility Mayor Muller called, “a showplace.” It includes the acclaimed Ninety Acres
Culinary Center.

“Blairsdon and Natirar are unique properties, and we are fortunate having them located here,” the mayor said. “They both have great stewardship.”

As fate would have it, Muller knows something about real estate. Upon his retirement, United Airlines entered bankruptcy and his pension was slashed by 70 percent. Since he owned some real estate, he felt a career in that sector would be a natural fit. He is now with Turpin Realtors, which comes in handy when dealing with related matters in Peapack-Gladstone. For example, a new retail/residential project (due for a 2017 completion) is currently being developed next to the municipal building, and a library improvement project is progressing, while the Borough Council Property Committee is working with a citizen group (the Liberty Park Association) to improve the 100-year-old picturesque park and lake. The Land Use Board and Council recently approved an eightmegawatt solar project on Pfizer’s facility that will supply virtually all the electricity the offices require, Muller added.

“My father was interested in politics and agreed with the concept that every citizen should participate in public life, but not necessarily as a lifetime career,” said Muller, who served a three-year term as Councilman prior to being elected mayor in 2014. Like most New Jersey mayors, the former aviator’s primary concerns are controlling costs and taxes while continuing to provide services and maintaining quality of life for residents.

“Governance at the local level is so interesting because politicians must interface with each other and with county, neighboring town, state, and federal entities,” he observed. “Finding enough time to be a member of the council, manage your employment, and raise a family is a serious challenge. Our council is six members, with a wide range of experience and talent who work hard to make this a place where children can be raised and retirees can live. Learning is constant, and problem-solving is a lengthy process. The wheels of government turn slowly.”

The town fathers have found success in shared services, forging, for example, an agreement with Bedminster Township to create a shared court. That success resulted in Bernardsville joining in 2016. Savings, accrued mainly from an elimination of duplicate manpower, has reached $72,000 per year. Other shared services involve the Somerset Hills School District, health services with Bernards Township, roadwork with Bedminster, Senior Van Services, and sewer pumping and treatment services.

“As a councilman and mayor, I have not wavered in saying that I will always consider a shared service when it makes sense,” Muller said. “When it means supplying equal or better services to our citizens and simultaneously creating significant savings. Both the county and state understand that we have to avoid the duplication that exists with 565 separate towns in New Jersey.”

But it’s not all budgets and bottom lines for the mayor. He and his wife have three grown children and five grandchildren ages 3 to 17. Lynn, now a senior flight attendant, organizes the couple’s leisure travels, including a trip to Myanmar, where they stayed at a hotel on bamboo stilts over the scenic Inle Lake, only accessible by boat. It’s one of her husband’s favorite locales.

“Lynn loves to travel and did a three-year, round-theworld hitchhiking trip in her 20s that took her through Afghanistan and other countries, where it would be very difficult in today’s environment,” said Muller, who graduated from Hunterdon Central High School in Flemington. “She retains very fond memories of the hospitable people she met.” The couple is also involved with church and community activities.

Bettering life for his fellow citizens is always on the mayor’s mind as he looks to future challenges. “Former Mayor of Bernards Township John Malay recently reached out to educate me about the scourge of prescription drugs and opiate addiction,” Muller said. “I’m learning how we might be able to help. The work goes on.”

Borough of Peapack and Gladstone Mayor’s Office / 1 School Street / 908.234.2250 / peapackgladstone.org