Former Fair Lawn Mayor, NJ Assemblyman Nicholas Felice Dead At 94

FAIR LAWN, NJ — Former Fair Lawn Mayor and long term state assemblyman Nicholas Felice has died at 94, an obituary confirms.

Felice served on multiple municipal boards and committees before he was elected mayor, where he served from 1972 to 1974. His run as an assemblyman began in 1982, and he eventually went on to serve for 10 terms in total, including a time as the Assembly Speaker Pro-Tempore.

Though surely not his most important contribution to New Jersey politics, a lasting memory of Felice came in the winter of 1983, when his legislative office fielded calls from children seek the "Santa Hot Line", a phone number that only differed by one digit from his office.

In addition to his time serving the state of New Jersey, Felice served his country in World War II.

He spoke with Patch at length for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, reflecting on his time in the service, and what he thinks about when he thinks of the soldiers who landed on the French coastline.

"I'm thinking about those kids, they were so young," said Felice at the time. "They had 65-pound packs on their backs. Many of them drowned in the water and never touched land. The Nazis set traps and bombs in the water. Ninety percent of the first wave was killed or wounded. It took two or three waves before they never reached the shore. It's amazing what was accomplished that day, but it had to happen."

Felice went to enlist in the Army Air Corps immediately after graduating from high school, but had a heart murmur. He enlisted in the Army instead, serving from 1945 to 1947.

He earned a served in the Pacific theater campaign as a technical sergeant and radio operator. He knew Morse code and was an expert in radio communications.

According to an obituary, Felice was born in Passaic in 1927, and was a graduate of Passaic High School and the RCA Institute of Technology. He later went on to attend and graduate from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Felice spent his final years in Mahwah, and was living at Brandywine Senior Living as recently as 2019.

Funeral services were planned in Fair Lawn for Friday morning.

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