'Big shoes to fill': North Haledon's former Mayor Renate Lampe has died at 81

North Haledon's first and only female mayor, Renate Lampe, died Wednesday at age 81.

Mayor of the Passaic County borough from 1990 to 1998, Lampe also served as councilwoman from 1985 to 1987.

"She left big shoes to fill," current Mayor Randy George said Thursday about following in Lampe's footsteps. "It's all about the people who serve before you. You watch them and you learn, and she was someone to watch," George said.

George served as a councilman during Lampe's two mayoral terms, and in that time, he said, he watched as she brought people together and built "consensus" among elected officials.

"She was the first woman mayor at a time when that was rare," George said.

Born in Konstanz, Germany, to Fritz and Thea Mueller, Lampe arrived in the United States with a cousin in 1959, her obituary said. In 1963 she moved to North Haledon, where she lived for the rest of her life.

Lampe, aside from her elected positions, worked as Passaic County's deputy clerk and before that as the tax collector for Haledon and North Haledon. She also sat on the North Haledon Board of Education and was a member of the Republican Club and the Jaycetts of Haledon.

Renate was predeceased by her husband, Roy Lampe, in 1999.

"They were a wonderful couple deeply involved in everything North Haledon," George said.

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She is survived by her son, Stewart Lampe, and his wife, Rena, of North Haledon and grandchildren Sean and Nicholas. She is also survived by her brother, Helmut Mueller in Germany.

Visitation will be Monday, March 21, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Vander Plaat-Vermeulen Memorial Home, 530 High Mountain Road, Franklin Lakes.

The funeral service will be held on Tuesday, March 22, at 10 a.m. at the funeral home.

Donations may be made in her memory to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Renate Lampe, North Haledon's first woman mayor, dies at 81