Suzanne and Ruth Hochberg, eighth and sixth grade students at Grover Middle School in West Windsor, never know what outfit their father, Cliff Hochberg, will be wearing. Some days it might be the full face mask with microphones and headphones he wears as a volunteer diver who swims with the sharks at the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden.
Other days it might be the shirt and tie he wears to see patients at his longtime chiropractic office in Plainsboro. ##M:[more]##
And then other times it just might be the tri-corner hat he dons as official Town Crier for Plainsboro Township. “My children say I’m always embarrassing them but I’m a bit of a ham and everything I do is a lot of fun. Actually they find the whole thing interesting. They’re used to their dad doing different things. Life is never dull in our house,” explains Hochberg. “As for the town crier thing, they know it’s a great way for me to give back to the community and keep the ancient tradition alive.”
Hochberg has just been reappointed for the town crier role by Mayor Peter Cantu in a position that comes up for renewal every year in January. Hochberg has been the only town crier Plainsboro has ever had, ever since he helped give birth to the idea in 1999. “I had been working on a planning session for the community’s Traditions celebration held annually in December. I said at the meeting that Princeton had a town crier walking around announcing different things, so why don’t we get him to announce our events in Plainsboro. The feeling of the committee was that we had our own small town history and so we should have our own town crier. They all looked at me and said how about you?”
Hochberg held the position unofficially until May of 2002 when Cantu made a town appointment naming him the official town crier of Plainsboro, a volunteer position. “There’s something called the Guild of American Town Criers,” Hochberg says, “with 30 town criers in the United States, seven of them in the state of New Jersey.”
Though he serves as Plainsboro’s town crier, he and his family live in the Sherbrooke Estates neighborhood of West Windsor, something he doesn’t find odd at all, especially since his practice is based in Plainsboro and he has always been involved in community events. “The two towns have a natural affinity. We share more than the school district. We also share a newspaper, the West Windsor-Plainsboro News. And we’ve got tremendous community spirit.”
Hochberg, 51, was born in Brooklyn to a father who was a salesman and a mother who was a homemaker. He chuckles when he relates the story of how his parents first met. “My father had been traveling on the road on business when an acquaintance introduced them. That night, going back to his hotel room he told the parking lot attendant I just met the woman I’m going to marry.” Hochberg also has an older sister, Carol, who lives in South Brunswick.
He graduated from Midwood High School in Brooklyn in 1972, which also happens to be the alma mater of Woody Allen “though he graduated lot earlier than I did.”
He earned a degree in elementary education at Brooklyn College, and right after graduating in 1976 realized that he didn’t want to be a teacher. Ever since he had discovered the Beatles in his youth, he had played music as a drummer. Throughout junior high, high school and college, he had played in bands and rock groups for all sorts of events, including weddings and Bat Mitzvahs. “I said to my mom, I want to be a musician. She was not overly pleased but she was an incredible woman and let me go in the direction I wanted.”
Hochberg played music professionally until 1981, then decided he wasn’t pleased with the lifestyle, which often meant coming home at 5 in the morning, carrying drums all over the place. That’s when he started thinking about another career. “I had always loved being around people. I was naturally health-oriented myself and I had heard about the chiropractic profession from a holistic preventive perspective. I became intrigued with the idea of becoming a chiropractor. Once I made that decision I felt I had a new direction in life.”
He went back to school at Brooklyn College to take core science courses, received mostly As and completed all of his requirements in two years. Then he was accepted at the New York Chiropractic College in Old Brookville, Long Island, and poured his heart into his studies while working weekends to support himself. He graduated in 1986 and was married the next year to his wife, Laurie (who was seriously injured in a car accident in 2004 but has since recovered and is now an operating room nurse at an eye surgery center in Hamilton).
The couple had always liked the Princeton area, and so in 1988 they moved to New Jersey and Hochberg established his chiropractic practice, located in the Princeton Meadows Office Center behind the Princeton Meadows Shopping Center on Plainsboro Road. Over the years he has developed a highly respected practice. “I actually can’t imagine doing anything other than chiropractic work. It’s the perfect profession for me because I love people and I love being able to take care of people without the use of drugs and surgery, allowing the body to heal itself. To watch the miracles that go on every day is very rewarding.”
As town crier, Hochberg’s responsibilities include working at such happenings as Founders Day, walking the field and announcing upcoming events. He gives positive publicity to such organizations as the fire and police departments and rescue squads. He walks in the Founders Day parade and also helps oversee the “Little Town Crier Contest,” open to children between the ages of 8 and 12 who might be interested in the position for a year.
One of the other major passions in Hochberg’s life is also a volunteer position, as a diver at the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden, a love he decided to pursue when he visited with his oldest daughter in 1994 when she was two years old. “ I had always had a fascination with scuba diving stemming from watching ‘Seahunt’ with Lloyd Bridges when I was just a kid. I had always pictured myself jumping off a boat into the water and when I saw the divers in Camden and found out there was a volunteer position with them I decided I wanted to do it.” So Hochberg became a certified scuba diver in 1996 and completed the requisite 25 logged dives by 1999 to take the written and pool test. He passed and became one of about 90 volunteer drivers. Hochberg goes in once every two weeks. His responsibilities include preparing food and feeding the fish and sharks. He also has to help maintain the tanks, scrub the rocks, and use the underwater vacuum. “You can say I vacuum and do windows,” he jokes.
In what little free time Hochberg has left, he serves on the temple board of Congregation Beth Chaim in West Windsor. He is also president of the men’s club at the temple, which organizes many events including the blood drive held there twice a year.
Hochberg hopes that his children will learn from his example to volunteer time, energy and positive spirit. “My family has always been involved in volunteerism. We say there’s a Hochberg gene that makes us want to give back and do things for the community. It’s a great lesson for my daughters and even though they say I might embarrass them sometimes, I think it’s something that rubs off on them too and makes them want to give back as well.”
