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MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016

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Showing gratitude
Dover church thanks emergency responders, military. STORY, 3A

Legendary coach says Rutgers Ash is right man for the job. STORY, 1B

Wife inspires
Chester doctors
cancer crusade

DAILY RECORD FILE PHOTO

A blank speed limit sign along Route 18 southbound in

Piscataway is seen in 2010.

Legislator:
70-mph
limit not so
far-fetched
Bill would adjust some restrictions
according to engineering research
MIKE DAVIS @BYMIKEDAVIS

How accurate are New Jerseys speed limits? One

legislator wants to find out.
Assemblyman Declan OScanlon, R-13th Dist., said
Thursday that hes preparing a bill that would link
New Jerseys speed limits to engineering research,
likely including an increase to 70 mph on major highways.
On some smaller roads, theres a chance that
speeds could even decrease, OScanlon said.
Were going to take bureaucrats and elected officials who dont know a thing about setting speed limits
and make sure theyre set according to sound engiPHOTO COURTESY OF HERITX

See RESEARCH, Page 2A

HeritX founders Thomas Bock and Joi Morris (center) accept the Aegis Award for Nonprofits from Joe Fortuna, founding
partner of the Aegis Group at Morgan Stanley (right) and John Cervenka of Morgan Stanley (left).

MICHAEL IZZO @MIZZODR

A Chester doctor has founded a nonprofit dedicated

to preventing inherited cancers instead of simply
treating them after a diagnosis, which he hopes may be
the first step in eliminating the disease altogether.
Dr. Thomas Bocks road to creating HeritX began in
November 2011, when his wife, Irina, was diagnosed
with breast cancer.
I suspected immediately that our lives were going
to change, Bock said. She underwent surgery and

chemotherapy, everything you know and read about.

His wife also was revealed to be positive for a BRCA
mutation, which meant her family carried a gene that
resulted in a high likelihood of breast, prostate, pancreas, ovarian and skin cancer.
What that means is it changed not just our life but
the lives of our whole family, Bock said. In a way that
was more devastating than the diagnosis of cancer.
Bock said he spent a good deal of his professional

Leonard Smalley
explains the
design for his
shatterproof
baseball bat.

See DOCTOR, Page 2A

This opens the door for cancer prevention. Now that you do know who gets
cancer you get a chance to study and medically intervene.
DR. THOMAS BOCK

Inventor making mark

with shatterproof bats
MICHAEL IZZO @MIZZODR

Whats Ahead This Week

New Jersey poets feted at CCM ceremony
RANDOLPH - County College of Morris will host a
reception to celebrate the publication of the 2016 issue
of the Journal of New Jersey Poets at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Davidson Rooms of the Student Community
Center on the colleges Randolph campus, 214 Center
Grove Road.
The reception will honor this years New Jersey Poets Prize recipient, Timothy Walsh. The event, featuring a reading, book signing and reception, is free and
open to the public.
The Journal of New Jersey Poets, the only annual
compendium of poetry by authors who were born,
raised or have an association with the state, began at
Fairleigh Dickinson University, which published the
first issue in 1975. CCM has been home to the journal
since 1990, and 2016 will mark the seventh year of the
New Jersey Poets Prize.
This years issue is dedicated to Dr. Edward J. Yaw,
who retires at the end of August after more than 30
years as CCMs president. Yaws presidency has been
marked by its support of the arts.
Walsh will read his winning poem, My Fathers
Royal Standard. His most recent poetry collections
are When the World Was Rear-Wheel Drive: New Jersey Poems and The Book of Arabella.
The ceremony also will honor both Marvin
Silbersher and Linda A. Cronin, two poets who have

had long relationships with the journal and are published in the 2016 issue who died this year.
Other distinguished poets attending will include
Charles H. Johnson, Richard Krohn, Wanda Praisner,
Chuck Tripi, Cheryl Racanelli, Ruth Holzer, and John
Bargowski, among others.
For more information about the event, call 973-3285463 or email ebirx@ccm.edu.

Volunteers needed for river cleanup

Volunteers are needed for the 24th Annual Musconetcong River Clean-up 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. at various locations
along the Musconetcong River including Lake Hopatcong State Park, Stephen State Park, Hackettstown
Alumni Park, Penwell Road Fishing Area, Point Mountain Park, Butler Park Road, Hampton Boro Park,
MWA River Resource Center, Bloomsbury/Asbury
Road, Warren Glen Park and Riegelsville area.
The Musconetcong River spans from Lake Hopatcong to the Delaware River. New locations will be added as needed.
Cleanup crews will pick up litter along roadsides,
parks and stream banks. The collected trash will be deposited in predetermined trash drop-off locations.
Volunteers will be provided with T-shirts, work
gloves, bags, snacks and water.
Following the cleanup, the MWA offers a free picnic
for participants at the MWA River Resource Center,
See AHEAD, Page 4A

Leonard Smalley wants to make baseball bats safer, but while hes patented a shatterproof wooden
safety bat, hes still waiting for teams or leagues to
embrace it.
Its a hard sell because people are still using aluminum bats, Smalley said. They send the ball out
faster and can cause a lot of damage. But its hard to
get people to go back to wood.
Smalley, 87, a retired Morris County Park Police officer from Chester now living in South Carolina, came
up with the idea on a whim.
It was just one of those things, Smalley said. My
family was out shopping and I was home, and the idea
came to me. What I if use fishing line?
Smalley said his idea, patented in 2008, uses the polymer film that typically wraps around fishing line to
make grooves around the bat, preventing it from shattering.
Its a webbing that holds the grain together, and
you can make it so you dont even see it, Smalley said.
It does not change the weight of the bat; it does not
change the balance. Its still one piece of wood. All we
did was make it safer so there would be less injuries
but keep it from shattering.
While there was no single moment that led to Smalleys desire to design a safer bat, he said a history of
See BATS, Page 4A

ADVICE............................................9A
CLASSIFIED......................................5B
COMICS ...........................................8A
OBITUARIES .................................10A
OPINION .........................................4A
SPORTS.............................................1B
TV .....................................................9A