Vito Perillo, the mayor of Tinton Falls, N.J., and known in life as the nation’s oldest mayor, has died. He was 100.
Perillo died Saturday night, the Asbury Park Press reported. He made national headlines in 2017, when he first ran for mayor at age 93, and again in 2021 when he was reelected.
“As a World War II veteran and mayor of Tinton Falls, Vito leaves behind an incredible legacy of service,” Gov. Phil Murphy wrote on social media. “Our hearts go out to his loved ones and the entire Tinton Falls community.”
Perillo was in the last year of his four-year term, and he previously stated he had no plans to seek reelection. After all, he turned 100 in September.
“I’m happy to be here, but I just want to be remembered for doing a good job,” Perillo told the Press last year. “That’s most important.”
Born Sept. 22, 2024, Perillo served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, sailing on a troop ship in the South Pacific. Afterward, he took a civilian job at Fort Monmouth and worked for decades as a civil engineer.
But in 2017, he decided to run for mayor of Tinton Falls, a 19,000-person borough about 35 miles south of Central Park. He said he was motivated to run after a pair of lawsuits against the local police department cost the town $1.1 million. He defeated the former police chief, Gerald Turning, in the 2017 election.
“I read his resume and his flyer about what he wanted to do. I said to [my wife] Pam, ‘I really like this guy. He may only get two votes, but it’ll be you and me.’ And lo and behold, he wins,” borough council member Lawrence Dobrin told the Press.
Perillo won the first election by about 300 votes and won reelection by around 750 votes. He was believed to be the nation’s oldest mayor beginning in 2019, when then-Booneville, Ky., Mayor Charles Long died at age 99.
