TINTON FALLS ‑ The birthday cards have been showing up for weeks. Then, on Friday, the borough employees threw a party for their mayor, Vito Perillo, who was born in 1924 when a gallon of gas cost 11 cents.
That's correct. Perillo will turn 100 years old this Sunday, Sept. 22. And he can still devour a piece of birthday cake, drink a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and run a town. He credits his longevity to years of playing golf and perhaps a glass of wine daily.
He is part of the "Greatest Generation" that fought in World War II, and since 2019 he is believed to be the nation's oldest mayor. The distinction was formerly held by Booneville, Kentucky's, former mayor Charles Long, who passed away that year at the age of 99. After Long's death, the distinction has fallen to Perillo.
The Asbury Park Press has made several prior attempts to verify that he is the oldest mayor in the country, but several professional organizations said they don't track that information. However, the fact has not been disputed. For Perillo though, he's never wanted attention for his age.
"I'm happy to be here, but I just want to be remembered for doing a good job," Perillo said. "That's most important."
More: At 96, is Tinton Falls Mayor Vito Perillo now the oldest in the U.S.?
Perillo made national headlines in 2017 when, as a 93-year-old World War II veteran, he decided to enter politics and defeated the borough's incumbent mayor and former police chief Gerald M. Turning. Perillo , motivated to run by a pair of whistleblower lawsuits involving the police department that cost the borough $1.1 million in settlements, went door-to-door in that campaign, handing out more than 7,500 flyers.
"When I first met the mayor he was 93 years old and running his first campaign,” said Lawrence Dobrin, who is a borough councilman now but wasn't on the council when Perillo first ran in 2017. “He was walking around and he came up to my wife Pam and me. I read his resume and his flyer about what he wanted to do. I said to Pam, 'I really like this guy. He may only get two votes but it'll be you and me.' And lo and behold, he wins."
Perillo wore out two pairs of shoes in that first campaign.
"I was nervous because we didn't know what to hope for. If he lost he might have been very devastated, but if he won I didn't know what he would be in for because it's politics. He's a nice guy and I wondered if he had the stomach for it. But you know what, he is tough as nails and he did have the stomach for it," said his daughter Ann Mae Perillo.
Perillo ended up getting more than two votes. On election night, he got over 2,400 votes and won by a margin of 306. The next day he was awakened at 7:50 a.m. by a phone call from a friend. Then the national media was at his doorstep. Perillo said that he eventually had to chase them away after a week of calls from a curious media and public.
When the hoopla died down, Perillo took his oath of his office on Jan. 2, 2018, and was sworn in on a bible that belonged to Mae, his wife of 64 years, who died in 2013. He then turned to being mayor, installing a new borough attorney and administrator.
"He's done a good job because he has surrounded the town with good professionals," said Dobrin, who ran with Perillo on his re-election in 2021 and won a seat on the council.
Will he run again?
The short answer is no. Perillo is nearing the end of his second term and rarely attends public meetings these days and is often represented by a proxy. He told the press on Friday that he doesn't plan to run again, but he "may look for another job."
During his working career, Perillo was a civil engineer and worked at Fort Monmouth. He raised his two daughters in Tinton Falls. Today, he has four grandkids and seven great grandkids.
"He was always attentive. He always cared about our education. He set a very good example for us, going back to college while he was working for the government as an engineer. My memory of him, is he would come home from work at Fort Monmouth and we would have an early dinner and then he would sit at the kitchen table and study," his daughter said..
When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Nation's oldest mayor Tinton Falls, N.J.'s Vito Perillo celebrates 100th birthday
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