Councilman succumbs after battle with cancer BY LAYLI WHYTE Staff Writer Joseph Questore EATONTOWN - Borough Council-man Joseph Questore, 46, passed away last Sunday after a long battle with cancer. "He was a great person," said Mayor Gerald Tarantolo Monday, "a great individual, a great father, a great husband, and an outstanding councilman." Questore is survived by his wife, Cheryl, and children Aiden, 6, and Olivia, 13. Services were to be held today at St. James Episcopal Church, Broad Street. Tarantolo said he had known Questore for more than 15 years, since the two of them worked together at Telcordia Technologies, Red Bank. Before being elected to council in 2005 to fill the one-year unexpired term of former Councilman Roy J. Eisen, Questore had been a member of the Eatontown Board of Education. Questore, a resident of Grant Avenue, won the Democratic nomination for that seat due to a write-in campaign started by the local Democratic organization. Questore won the seat in the November 2005 election and campaigned in 2006 for re-election along with Tarantolo and Councilman Charles DaVis. Questore was born and raised in New York City, according to his biography on Eatontown's official Web site, and had been a resident of Eatontown for the past 15 years. According to the biography, he regularly volunteered, including at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, N.Y., and serving meals at Lunch Break in Red Bank. "During the Gulf War," the biography states, "he volunteered at the Fort Monmouth Military Amateur Radio Service Station to patch phone calls from soldiers in the Gulf to their families over short wave radio." He served as a lay Eucharistic minister at St. James Episcopal Church and served on the Vestry (governing council) for two years. Questore also spent time kayaking with his family on the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers, and enjoyed writing and theology. "Joe and I have known each other for the past 15 years," Tarantolo said. "We'll miss him." Despite his illness, Questore campaigned in 2006 for his seat on council, but he was unable to attend the reorganization meeting on Jan. 1. He was sworn in to office during a private ceremony in the mayor's office later in January.