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"Small Enough To Know You, Big Enough To Serve You"
From Courier News
Dunellen mourns for late businessman Zupko
By LAURIE LEVOY
Staff Writer
DUNELLEN -- Richard Zupko's imprint on this small and tight-knit community was indelible, report friends, employees and municipal contacts, and his sudden death has left many in this one-square mile town reflecting on his life.
After experiencing chest pains Saturday, Zupko was taken to Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield, where he died shortly thereafter as family members were en route.
Zupko left his mark on the borough even as a youth, said Edward Moraller, an old friend and classmate from high school. In an e-mail to the Courier News, Moraller wrote that in the early 1960s, "we played football and baseball together on the high-school teams and in Dunellen Recreation programs."
His involvement with youth sports continued into adulthood, right through 2007, said Lynn Santos, who for many years had worked daily besides Zupko as manager of Zupko's Tavern, a borough business fixture along with Zupko's Dunellen Theater and Cinema Cafe, a unique and popular venue in town.
"He was committed to the community," Santos said, "especially to youth sports teams. If anyone needed sponsorship, whether they lived in town or next door, Rich gave them what was necessary -- both girls and boys teams."
When Zupko wasn't visiting with his large, extended family, he could most likely be found working at the two businesses that he prodded and nurtured to success.
As owner and operator of Zupko's Tavern and the Dunellen Theater and Cinema Cafe, "he did it all," said Bill Robins, president of Dunellen Merchants and Professional Association. Robins noted that Zupko was always an active member of the chamber-like business association, always looking "to better and beautify downtown Dunellen."
Although Zupko and his father had owned the tavern for several decades, Richard Zupko the son expanded upon a concept he envisioned, and several years ago turned the Dunellen Theater into a dinner theater, where patrons could see first-run movies while dining on tavern fare. The tavern shares a common wall with the theater.
If some in the community couldn't easily come to him, Zupko made it a point to bring them to his theater, said George Deene, another longtime friend and the borough's code enforcement agent.
"He reserved time most months for the seniors to come see a movie and have something to eat afterwards," Deene said. "He was just a very popular and very involved guy around this town."
Deene and Moraller said Zupko often brought school classes to the theater for an afternoon outing, as well.
"He kept small enterprise alive in this community, so our downtown didn't have the chain names found elsewhere," Moraller said, adding, "without him that theater would have been razed."
Tavern manager Santos echoed those thoughts, but added: "He was more than a boss to me. He was a friend."
A Mass of Christian burial will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday at St. John's Church in Dunellen. Visitation is from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. today at Sheenan Funeral Home, 233 Dunellen Ave., Dunellen. Donations in Zupko's name may be forwarded to the American Heart Association, 2550 Route 1, North Brunswick, NJ 08902.
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