We are pleased to announce the appointment of two new Trustees to its Board of Directors: April DiComo and Mark Porter.
April DiComo
While new to the board, April DiComo has longstanding ties to Montclair. As April observes, “I spent the best years of my childhood in Montclair.”
A 1987 graduate of Montclair High School, April earned a BA degree in English, with a minor in journalism, from Rutgers University, and also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing/nonfiction from Columbia University.
April has a professional background in writing, researching, interviewing, marketing and fundraising including grant-writing, and has worked with many nonprofits and cultural organizations such as WNET, the Brooklyn Public Library, and Prospect Park Alliance. She’s now works for the NJ Judiciary, a second career, serving as clerk to a family court judge.
She spent more than two decades residing in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In 2011, April returned to Montclair with her family, noting that she’s “been delighted to share this special town with my husband and children.” Her children, Callum, 17, and Cosimo, 10, attend Montclair public schools. She is a Quaker and attends Montclair Friends Meeting.
Noting that her husband, Chris, is trained in architecture and fine furniture making, April says, “Together we share longstanding interests in history and architecture.”
“I have been really excited about the programming at Montclair History Center since we’ve been back in town,” says April. Through a program presented by the History Center, April learned that her family’s house, located on Plymouth Street and built in 1915, was designed by acclaimed local architect Dudley Van Antwerp.
April and her family’s interest in Montclair History Center has been rewarding: “We have taken part in many MHC programs, and especially enjoy the History Center collaborations with Montclair Community Farms.”
April DiComo is now in the MHC’s leadership. April notes she’s “excited to join this very gifted and dedicated staff and board to help support the mission to preserve Montclair’s history, and that of the local region -- and to educate and engage the many different communities that have shaped and continue to shape this wonderful town’s history.”
“I’m always interested in how we can include more voices in more ways in what we do, especially those traditionally underrepresented,” April says. “On the MHC board I look forward to rolling up my sleeves to contribute to strategic planning and programming, and pitch in wherever helpful.”
Mark S. Porter
Mark S. Porter is the second new member of Montclair History Center's Board of Trustees. Born in Rochester, New York, Mark has spent much of his life in Montclair. Through his decades-long editorship at The Montclair Times, he has been instrumental in documenting Montclair’s history.
"I am continuously amazed at Montclair's artistic, racial, educational, retail, ethnic, political, nonprofit, environmental and architectural facets,” says Mark. “I'm honored to be a member of the organization preserving and informing the world of Montclair's myriad features."
When Mark was nine, his parents moved to Montclair from Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and he entered the public school system. Because his family moved twice and it was period of educational changes and racial integration in town, he attended five different schools in ten years: Grove Street School, Edgemont School, George Inness Junior High School, Hillside School, and Montclair High School.
A Rutgers University graduate, Mark worked for NJ Bell and Middlesex County government, and then joined The News Tribune and then The Home News Tribune as a daily-newspaper journalist for 17 years.
After two years of working as an editor for Investment Dealers’ Digest in Tower Two of the World Trade Center, in June 1998 Mark accepted the editorship of The Montclair Times, a newspaper he'd read and written letters to as a youth. He was The Times' editor until 2016, when he became an editor at The [Bergen] Record. In 2018, he retired, and has now joined the Montclair History Center.
As a long-time resident and editor of a local newspaper that dates back to 1877, Mark has first-hand experience with the town’s history, which he says is “enthralling.” “Famous, accomplished residents have resided here since Israel Crane first built a house here and Buzz Aldrin perceived his hometown as Apollo 11 zoomed to the moon,” says Mark. “Montclair has been a state and national leader in establishing a magnet school system and initiating First Night in New Jersey.”
Mark’s in-depth knowledge of Montclair’s history, government, organizations, and people is a valuable asset for the Montclair History Center.