Steve Kalafer remembered as chairman, father-figure and friend centraljersey.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from centraljersey.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
He walked away before I could respond.
The following week, I got a call: Steve Kalafer wanted to talk.
It turned out that Kalafer, a Hall of Fame business leader who owned car dealerships, a minor-league baseball team, served on a variety of boards, participated in numerous philanthropic efforts and was nominated for four Academy Awards as the producer of documentaries, loved journalism.
Especially at the local level.
Kalafer said he loved the power and prestige the industry once had. He longed for it to have such importance again. He somehow knew I was then the editor of NJBIZ.
“Society was better when every politician woke up wondering what was going to be on the front page of the paper,” he told me during our first talk.