{"id":364642,"date":"2026-10-05T08:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/364642\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T08:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:42:11","slug":"new-jersey-hall-of-fame-inducts-2026-class-at-american-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/364642\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Hall of Fame inducts 2026 class at American Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

SZA, Robert Garrett, Christopher Paladino and former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman among the honorees<\/p>\n

The basics:<\/p>\n

New Jersey Hall of Fame inducted its 2026 class at American Dream
\nSZA was among the honorees, reflecting on her Maplewood roots
\nThe Rascals\u2019 Eddie Brigati performed with Steven Van Zandt
\nClass includes leaders in business, sports, education, arts and public service<\/p>\n

New Jersey Hall of Fame<\/a> ceremonies are known for their star-studded grand finales.\n<\/p>\n

Where else would a 1960s pop hitmaker jam out with a member of the E Street Band, former governor and two Pro Football Hall of Famers?\n<\/p>\n

But at the 18th induction<\/a>, megastar singer-songwriter SZA brought high-wattage celebrity to the stage early in the ceremony \u2014 with a super Jersey speech to match.\n<\/p>\n

After returning host Danny DeVito (class of 2010) got things started, the seven-time Grammy winner got a sweet introduction from her parents. SZA, 36, was born Sol\u00e1na Rowe in St. Louis, Mo., and grew up in Maplewood.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an early age, Sol\u00e1na succeeded at whatever she really tried,\u201d said her mother, Audrey Rowe \u2014 whether theater, dance or gymnastics. \u201cShe was often the youngest, the smallest and often the only person of color in many of her experiences \u2026 Sol\u00e1na has remained the same: highly sensitive, caring and generous. She\u2019s always insisted on doing things her own way, ignoring boundaries of time and energy to do whatever it takes.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

SZA\u2019s father, Abdul Mubarak-Rowe, recalled what it was like to hear his daughter\u2019s 2017 debut album, \u201cCtrl.\u201d He was so emotional, it took him months to get through the record.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I listened to it, I was brought to tears,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\u2018The heartbeat of the tri-state\u2019<\/p>\n

SZA called her Sept. 24 hall of fame induction \u201cone of the biggest honors I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d
\n\"New\"NewSinger-songwriter and New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee SZA grew up in Maplewood. \u201cI just wanna say I love Jersey, every corner of Jersey,\u201d she said at the induction ceremony. \u2013 PHOTO CREDIT: BUCCI\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanna say I love Jersey, every corner of Jersey,\u201d she said. She went on to list her beloved local haunts and formative encounters \u2014 her home in Maplewood, where she attended Maplewood Middle School, Columbia High School and worked at Village Trattoria; getting Portuguese-style ribs in Newark\u2019s Ironbound; working at Magic Sneaker in Irvington; and her mother\u2019s tenure as program director at the South Orange\/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race and Sunday School teacher at Prospect Presbyterian Church.<\/p>\n

SZA described her childhood in Maplewood as being in a place where everyone knew everyone\u2019s name. She said exposure to the local culture \u2013 from friendships with Italian and Irish Americans to eating bagels and going to bar and bat mitzvahs \u2013 served as a useful primer.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of prepared me for the world,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not utopian, but it\u2019s very real. I think sometimes people skip over Jersey and go straight to New York, but they\u2019re missing the meat, they\u2019re missing the energy, they\u2019re missing the heartbeat of the tri-state.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

SZA<\/a>, whose No. 1-charting sophomore album \u201cSOS\u201d (2022) went eight times platinum, shouted out her forebears at Columbia High School. The include fellow Grammy winner Lauryn Hill and the actor and singer Rotimi. \u201cI\u2019m just a culmination of those people,\u201d she said. \u201cI just love community and I promise to take that energy of community around the world, wherever I go.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

This is the first year the ceremony took place at the new Dream Live Performing Arts Center at American Dream<\/a>. The mega mall is also home to the New Jersey Hall of Fame Entertainment and Learning Center, which opened in 2024<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

I just love community and I promise to take that energy of community around the world, wherever I go.
\u2013 SZA, singer-songwriter and 2026 New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee<\/p>\n

Good Jersey lovin\u2019<\/p>\n

Joining SZA in the hall\u2019s performing arts category this year: three members of The Rascals, the band from Garfield who started out as The Young Rascals.\n<\/p>\n

Singer Eddie Brigati Jr., the sole living member of the group in attendance, took the stage to perform some of their many 1960s hits \u2014 No. 1 song \u201cGood Lovin\u2019\u201d (1966) and \u201cHow Can I Be Sure\u201d (1967).\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Jersey\u2019s the capital of the universe,\u201d said Brigati, 80, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame who also co-wrote the band\u2019s Grammy Hall of Fame song \u201cGroovin\u2019\u201d (1967).\n<\/p>\n

E Street Band mainstay Steven Van Zandt, who brought the Rascals to Broadway in the 2013 show \u201cOnce Upon a Dream,\u201d was on hand to induct Brigati and join him on guitar. Van Zandt, a 2017 inductee to the state hall, also inducted the band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
\n\"New\"NewE Street Band\u2019s Steven Van Zandt (Class of 2017, left) and The Rascals band member Edward Brigati Jr. (right) at the New Jersey Hall of Fame 2026 Induction Ceremony. \u2013 PHOTO CREDIT: NEW JERSEY HALL OF FAME\/GELLMAN IMAGES\n<\/p>\n

Other members of the Rascals \u2013 Brigati\u2019s brother David Brigati and drummer Dino Danelli \u2013 were inducted posthumously. Founding band members Felix Cavaliere (lead singer, keyboard) and Gene Cornish (singer-guitarist) did not attend the ceremony and were not inducted (living inductees must be on hand to be inducted).\n<\/p>\n

Joining Brigati onstage for his grand finale of \u201cGood Lovin\u2019\u201d were fellow 2026 inductee Lawrence \u201cL.T.\u201d Taylor and Giants legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Harry Carson, who was inducted to the state hall in 2018.\n<\/p>\n

Carson inducted Taylor, 67, in the sports category. \u201cI\u2019m very happy for what is going on in New Jersey,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI came to Jersey quite some years ago and I stayed here for 20-something years \u2026 I\u2019m happy to be back home.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Former governors<\/p>\n

Two days before her 81st birthday, former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman was onstage for the hall\u2019s musical finale. Whitman, inducted in the public service category, was governor from 1994 to 2001 and the first woman to hold the office. She later served as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of George W. Bush.\n<\/p>\n

She held the EPA role in the aftermath of 9\/11, at the time assuring New Yorkers that the air at Ground Zero was not harmful. Years later, as those exposed to that air continued to suffer and die from health conditions caused by exposure to the environmental fallout, she apologized. More recently, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released records that show city government knew the air was toxic.
\n\"New\"NewFormer Gov. Christine Todd Whitman was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame\u2019s\u00a0public service category. \u2013 PHOTO CREDIT: NEW JERSEY HALL OF FAME\/GELLMAN IMAGES\n<\/p>\n

At the hall of fame ceremony, Whitman chose to focus on a win from her tenure as governor. \u201cOne of the things that actually stuck in my mind was a Supreme Court case that we won that acknowledged that 90% of Ellis Island is in New Jersey,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reason that I think that\u2019s so important is because of the time it represents \u2014 what the United States was doing really well. We were welcoming people who were fleeing from war, from hunger, wanting a better life in this country.\u201d That move \u201cgave us the diversity\u201d the state is known for, she said, proving that \u201cwe are many faces of one family.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Whitman left the Republican Party in 2022 to co-found the Forward Party.\n<\/p>\n

Another former governor, Chris Christie \u2013 still a Republican \u2013 was at the ceremony to induct Robert Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. Christie, 64, recently made headlines by saying he\u2019s mulling another presidential run in 2028. As he took the stage at Dream Live, the band played the Billy Joel song \u201cBig Shot.\u201d Joel\u2019s own longtime saxophonist, Mark Rivera, was part of the ensemble.\n<\/p>\n

Christie called Garrett, an inductee in the hall\u2019s enterprise category, \u201cone of the great business leaders of New Jersey.\u201d
\n\"Hackensack\"HackensackHackensack Meridian Health CEO Robert Garrett was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame on Sept. 24. Former Gov. Chris Christie inducted Garrett and called him \u201cone of the great business leaders of New Jersey.\u201d- PROVIDED BY HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH\/PHOTO BY GELLMAN IMAGES\n<\/p>\n

Among Garrett\u2019s accomplishments, Christie highlighted the 2015 founding of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine<\/a>, which enrolled its first students in 2018.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a good man, a really good man,\u201d Christie said. \u201cDuring my time as governor, Bob was often the person in the private sector that I turned to for advice and for counsel \u2026 I believe our greatest victory together was the opening up of that medical school. New Jersey will be well served by the talent that will flow through that school for years to come, and it would not have happened without the vision of Bob Garrett.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The next chapter<\/p>\n

After announcing his retirement, Hackensack Meridian Health CEO Robert Garrett reflects on his tenure and looks to the future. Read more here.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

In his speech, Garrett, who presides over a network of 18 hospitals and 500 \u201ccare locations,\u201d paid tribute to the system\u2019s frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and its healthcare employees. \u201cI believe the future is bright for Hackensack Meridian and for health care and also for the great state of New Jersey,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Schools, wishes and philanthropy<\/p>\n

During his induction, Thomas Eastwick talked about some fellow inductees:\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw The Rascals in 1966 at the Long Island Arena, so can you imagine how old I am?!\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Eastwick, founder of Eastwick College and HoHoKus School of Trade and Technical Sciences, was inducted in the hall\u2019s education, research, engineering and science category.
\n\"New\"NewPast and current honorees taking the stage at the New Jersey Hall of Fame 2026 Induction Ceremony\u00a0 included Harry Carson, Lawrence \u201cLT\u201d Taylor, Tommy James, Stevie Van Zandt, Edward Brigati Jr., former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, Thomas Eastwick and Robert Garrett. \u2013 PHOTO CREDIT: NEW JERSEY HALL OF FAME\/GELLMAN IMAGES\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come to realize that success isn\u2019t measured simply by what you accomplish,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s measured by the people you help, the opportunities you create, the difference you make in the lives of others.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The hall\u2019s 2026 \u201cunsung hero\u201d is Tom Weatherall, who has been CEO of Make-A-Wish New Jersey since 2005. Its educator of the year is Marbel Tamayo, a Spanish teacher at Eastside High School in Paterson.\n<\/p>\n

Another enterprise inductee: Christopher Paladino, president of New Brunswick Development Corp. (DEVCO). In his speech, Paladino said he\u2019s \u201cproud to be part of a New Jersey story.\u201d
\n\"New\"NewNew Jersey Hall of Fame enterprise inductee Christopher Paladino, president of New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO), said he\u2019s \u201cproud to be part of a New Jersey story.\u201d \u2013 PHOTO CREDIT: NEW JERSEY HALL OF FAME\/GELLMAN IMAGES\n<\/p>\n

Big Joe Henry, the hall\u2019s sole arts and letters inductee this year, is a longtime radio personality from New Jersey 101.5. He\u2019s also known for his philanthropic efforts, aiding local food pantries and Special Olympics New Jersey and helping to bring 80,000 toys to children of families affected by Hurricane Katrina.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always looked at myself as a conduit,\u201d he said in his booming voice.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll close tonight the way I close my radio show,\u201d he said. \u201cGo out this week, support local New Jersey musicians \u2014 there\u2019s no better talent than right here in the great Garden State.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Posthumous honors<\/p>\n

These weren\u2019t the only honorees celebrated at the ceremony. Here are more of the New Jersey Hall of Fame\u2019s posthumous inductees for 2026:\n<\/p>\n

Education, research, engineering and science: Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, philanthropist. Founder of the Morris and Essex Dog Club and St. Hubert\u2019s Animal Welfare Center. She willed her fortune to fund the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
\nEnterprise: James Burke, former CEO of Johnson & Johnson. Steered the company during the 1982 Tylenol murders, when people died from pills poisoned with cyanide.
\nPublic service: U.S. Donald Milford Payne Sr.
\nSports: John McMullen, former owner of the New Jersey Devils<\/p>\n

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