Carl Golden, retired popular press secretary for New Jersey Govs. Tom Kean and Christine Todd Whitman, has died at 86
He was also a former reporter, longtime public policy analyst, and prolific editorial opinion writer. A colleague called him “a cornerstone in New Jersey politics and communications.”
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Carl Golden, 86, of Burlington Township, former press secretary for New Jersey Govs. Tom Kean and Christine Todd Whitman, longtime senior analyst at the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University, former newspaper reporter, onetime staffer for U.S. Rep. Peter Frelinghuysen, and prolific editorial opinion writer, died Monday, May 20, of cardiac arrest at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden.
Known for his quips and cowboy boots, and his integrity and expansive knowledge of New Jersey politics, Mr. Golden served as Kean’s press secretary from 1982 to 1990 and Whitman’s spokesman from 1993 to his retirement in 1996. A former reporter for the Easton Express in Northampton County, Pa., and later the Newark Evening News in North Jersey, Mr. Golden knew what both his bosses and reporters needed, and he was adept at getting it for them.
“I used Carl as a lot more than a press secretary,” Kean told the Associated Press in 1996. “I did not make a major decision without having Carl in the discussion. He is, bar none, the best press secretary I ever worked with.” Whitman told the AP in 1996: “No one has the institutional memory or the turn of phrase Carl has. He understands the background that’s behind issues, and can calm people’s problems and concerns.”
Mr. Golden left his newspaper job in Newark in 1966 to work for Frelinghuysen in Washington and then for Kean and other state assembly Republicans in Trenton in the 1970s. He served on many statewide campaigns, represented several government groups over more than 30 years, and was a spokesman for former New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Wilentz in the early 1990s, between his stints with Kean and Whitman.
He joined the Hughes Center for Public Policy as a senior contributing analyst in 2010, and hundreds of his columns for the think tank were published in The Inquirer and other outlets across the country and around the world. He was most proud, said his wife, Linda, that his work appeared in the Korea Times in South Korea.
Colleagues said he had three rules in dealing with politicians and the media. Tell the truth was his first rule. Tell the truth was his second rule. Follow rules one and two was his third rule. “He was never afraid to give his best advice,” his wife said. “He said that was what he was paid to do.”
In a recent online tribute, Gov. Murphy called Mr. Golden “an accomplished reporter, public servant, and spokesman.” New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said: “His legacy as a skillful press secretary and his dedication to informing the people of New Jersey will live on.”
Officials at the Hughes Center at Stockton said in a tribute: “His death is a loss not only for the university but for all of New Jersey.”
Mr. Golden covered news for the Express from 1955 to 1962 and then the Evening News until 1966. He worked for an advertising and public relations firm for a few years in the late 1990s, and told The Inquirer when he retired in 1996: “It’s going to be a bit of an adjustment. There will be times when I’ll pick up the paper and see a story and wonder why I’m not in the middle of that. But then I’ll lie down for a while, and I’m sure the feeling will pass.”
Carl Robert Golden was born Oct. 17, 1937, in Easton. He played baseball and read a lot as a boy, and graduated from Easton High School in 1955.
His first job was as copy boy at the Express. He married Shirley Foss, and they had daughters Jill, Patti, and Kristi, and sons Carl Jr. and Donald.
After a divorce, he met Linda Monica in 1981, and they married in 1992, adopted daughters Jessica, Corey, and Cassidy, and lived in Bordentown and Burlington Township.
In the business-suit world of New Jersey politics in the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, Mr. Golden was a maverick. He preferred jeans, leather jackets, and his favorite denim shirts over pressed pants and wide ties. He wore turquoise jewelry, listened to Willie Nelson’s music, and sported an earring for a time.
He usually wrote in the mornings and pored over stacks of newspapers all day. He commuted to Trenton from Burlington Township, beat colon cancer in the 1990s, and wrote about it in 2001 when federal funding for stem-cell research was first introduced.
“He was an interesting character,” his wife said. “He had his own style. He had a public personality and home personality. At home, he was caring and supportive in everything.”
In addition to his wife, children, and former wife, Mr. Golden is survived by 10 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two brothers. Two brothers died earlier.
Services were held on May 28.
Donations in his name may be made to the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University, 101 Vera King Farris Dr., Galloway, N.J. 08205.