United States Senator
Senator Lautenberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1924, the son of Polish and Russian immigrants who came to the United States through Ellis Island. His early life was unsettled as his parents moved from Patterson, Passaic and Belleville while struggling to support the family. While in Nutley, he lived with his family in a second floor flat across the street from the high school on Franklin Avenue. He recalls his year at Nutley High School as one of the best years of his life. He was graduated from Nutley High School in 1941. After graduating from Nutley, Lautenberg enlisted and served in the Army Signal Corps in Europe. Following the war, he attended Columbia University on the G.I. Bill and graduated with a degree in economics in 1949. After college, Senator Lautenberg joined with two boyhood friends to found the nation’s first payroll company, Automatic Data Processing (ADP). Lautenberg served as chairman and CEO, and along with his partners developed ADP into one of the largest computing services company in the world.
Senator Lautenberg wanted to give something back to the nation that had given him so many opportunities. He decided to run for public office and was elected to the Senate in 1982. He was re-elected in 1988 and 1994. After a brief retirement, Senator Lautenberg won a fourth term in 2002 and was re-elected to a fifth term on November 4, 2008.
Senator Lautenberg has worked hard to improve the lives of New Jersey families. He has fought to save health insurance for thousands of children, reimburse military families who bought body armor for their loved ones serving in Iraq, modernize the G.I. Bill, strengthen Amtrak, increase security along our railroads and at ports and chemical plants, reverse global warming, provide justice for victims of terrorism, make college more affordable and protect our beaches and oceans. Senator Lautenberg resides in Cliffside Park with his wife, Bonnie. He has four children and 12 grandchildren.