Teresa Ann Politano

Teresa Ann Politano, wife, mother, award-winning author and editor and university professor, died Wednesday, January 24, 2024. She was 62.

Teresa’s book, “Reflections on the Pandemic: COVID and Social Crises in the Year Everything Changed,” was released earlier this month. It documents the impact of the pandemic and social justice movement through the prism of Rutgers University’s community, ranging from medical researchers and scientists to artists, writers and students.

Teresa was a food writer and restaurant critic for The Star-Ledger and Inside Jersey magazine for nearly a decade. She wrote the book, “Celebrity Chefs of New Jersey: Their Stories, Recipes and Secrets,” and was editor of the magazine Edible Jersey.

Teresa won the International Association of Culinary Professionals 2022 award for personal essays/memoir writing for “Don’t Forget the Tomatoes for My Funeral,” published in the University of California Press’ Gastronomica academic journal.

Teresa had a distinguished career as a news editor and executive. She was the former managing editor of The Home News Tribune in Central New Jersey in the heyday of New Jersey's newspaper wars. She supervised the merger of The Home News and News Tribune.

Other former positions included assistant Sunday editor for The Asbury Park Press and assistant managing editor, United Media, New York City. Teresa won numerous editing and writing awards from the New Jersey Press Association, the Society of Newspaper Design, and the NJ Society of Professional Journalists.

Teresa’s career in higher education began nearly 25 years ago at Rutgers University, where she taught News Reporting and Writing, Editing and Writing for Print, Writing for Print Media, and Media and Ethics. Teresa received the Rutgers University Distinguished Teaching Award and was a former member of New Jersey Higher Education Leadership Council.

Most recently she was senior program administrator in Academic Initiatives at Rutgers. 

Teresa had a passion for travel, particularly to her beloved Florence, Italy. In recent years she was a judge in the International Chocolate Awards in London and Italy. She participated in writing workshops in Kinsale, Ireland, and Cozumel, Mexico.

Teresa ran the New York City Marathon in 2009, finishing in 4:34:27.

Teresa graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science. During the pandemic, she completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She also attended American University in Washington, DC.

For more than a year, Teresa battled pancreatic cancer.

Teresa is survived by her husband, Pat Politano of Cranford; their son, Joseph of Arlington, Va.; daughter Anne of Cranford; son Alexander of Cranford; her mother, Janet Klink of Somerset, Pa.; sisters Beth Blair of Indiana, Pa., Terri Klink Hotchkiss of Waunakee, Wisc., Melissa Klink Shelton of Oak Grove, La.; brother William Klink, also of Oak Grove; and many nieces and nephews including the favored Jordan Blair of Pittsburgh.

A Life celebration Gathering will be Wednesday January 31, 2024,  4pm to 8 pm at Gray Memorial Funeral Home, 12 Springfield Avenue in Cranford