The time has come for Patricia Hullfish to step away — completely — from her work with Plainsboro Township.
Hullfish, who stepped down as township clerk in February, 2008, to pursue a part-time position as Mayor Peter Cantu’s assistant, is retiring effective December 1.
For a quarter of a century, Hullfish fielded calls from residents, spent 17 to 18 hours working on election days, attended Plainsboro Township Committee meetings, sent out proper notices and gathered material for those meetings, worked on issuing residents’ passports, along with a plethora of other responsibilities that come with the job.
She has served as the executive assistant to Mayor Peter Cantu over the last year. The executive assistant position required Hullfish to act as a liaison between the mayor, various governmental or private sector organizations, and the public. She was also responsible for coordinating the mayor’s schedule and assisting in the preparation of news releases, speeches, bulletins, pamphlets, and other material.
Hullfish said she will not miss working but will miss her co-workers. “I worked a long time,” she said. Her retirement is “going to be great.”
Plus, she will remain on the township’s Planning Board. “I was a volunteer first, and I’ll be a volunteer after,” said Hullfish, who has served on the board for 23 years. “I can’t not be involved.”
In her retirement, Hullfish plans to spend a lot of time working on the house she and her husband purchased on the Jersey shore. Eventually, the couple might move there. Hullfish will also become a grandmother very soon, and although it was not planned to coincide with her retirement, “it worked out great.”
“I’ve worked for so long,” she said. Not going to work “will be strange, but I think I’m going to enjoy being home.”
Hullfish added: “Plainsboro’s such a great place to work, but it’s really time to move on while I can enjoy it. It will be different. It’s very exciting to be having a grandchild and to be able to know that I’ll be able to enjoy my grandbaby and the rest of my family.”
She always had an interest in photography, and she hopes she can pursue that more in her retirement as well. But “nothing beats getting up in the morning and going down to the beach for a couple of hours.”
