Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I & III • September 14, 2011 David Murphy of Wyckoff and Harry Shortway, Jr. of Midland Park will be honored at a testimonial dinner sponsored jointly by the Midland Park United Republican Club and the Wyckoff Republican League. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Brick House in Wyckoff. Both honorees are well-respected, long time police offi- Murphy, Shortway to be honored at joint dinner cers and firefighters. Murphy, a Wyckoff police officer for 14 years, was promoted to lieutenant in 2009 and is currently third in charge of the department. He has been a firefighter for 19 years, and served four years as department chief. Shortway, currently serving as a Bergen County undersheriff in charge of the foreclosures and writs division of the department, retired from the Ridgewood Police Department in 2002 with the rank of detective sergeant after 42 years on the force. He has been a Hawthorne firefighter for over 50 years. A lifelong Wyckoff resident, Murphy started as a Wyckoff police dispatcher the day after graduating from high school, and was named to the force the following year, and has accrued a number of commendations throughout his career. He is also the recipient of the 9/11 Dana Hannon Distinguished Service Award. He serves as the township’s Office of Emergency Management coordinator and started the first CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program , which currently has 38 members. He has served as assistant coach for various youth sports in Wyckoff , as an instructor for Fire Engineering Magazine, as an investigator with the Bergen County Prosecutors Office Arson Task Force and on the Lincoln School Dad’s Night Talent Show. He and his wife Lynn have three children, Matthew 10, Daniel 8 and 18-month-old Julia. Shortway grew up in Hawthorne, the second in a family of 11 children. A former Marine, he turned down an offer to play baseball for the St Louis Cardinal’s minor league team in 1958 ( at $250 a month) , and decided to become a police officer, joining the Ridgewood Police Department in 1960. He served as a Bergen County undersheriff from 2002 to 2005 and ran for Bergen County Sheriff in 1998 and 2007. As a pitcher for the Hawthorne Fire Department, Shortway earned his 800th career win at 73 years young this summer. A long time Midland Park resident, Shortway is the father of eight, grandfather of 13 and great grandfather of one. For more information or to support the event, please contact Midland Park club president John Meeks (john. meeks26@gmail.com) or Kathy Scarpelli of Wyckoff at 201-891-1820 (kmscarp5@hotmail.com). Last year’s honorees were Bill Brock, Jr. of Wyckoff and Patrick “Bud” O’Hagan of Midland Park. Previous recipients were Mary Allyn of Midland Park and Tom Madigan of Wyckoff, former Senator Hank McNamara; former Freeholder J. William Van Dyke; the late Richard Jeffer, Julia Pontier, Ted Vandervliet, and Republican County Chairman Henk Shotmeyer; Laurie Kamp and Michelle Nejmeh from The Love Fund; David Bolger, Lorraine DeLuca; and former Mayor Ester Vierheilig, among others. Midland Park’s newest police officer, Thomas Bedoe, center, is sworn in by Mayor Joseph Monahan during last week’s council meeting, as Bedoe’s brother, Craig, holds the Bible. Bledoe, who graduated from the Cape May County Police Academy through the alternate route program, rounds out the force at 14 men, including the chief. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Rowan University and is currently working on his master’s in administrative science at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Wayne. New officer sworn in