Dr. Peter Norvel Britton, Jr., who passed away in 2000, was a long-time Kramer Manor resident in Fanwood and Scotch Plains. Dr. Britton was the first black member of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education and the board’s first black president. He also served on the boards of directors of the Scotch Plains Fanwood YMCA and the Human Rights Council.
He was Director of Community Environmental Development at the Johnson & Johnson Company in New Brunswick for 11 years, retiring in 1999. He was responsible for the development and implementation of worldwide community strategy. Dr. Britton was awarded seven patents for product and process innovation in the non-woven area and in drug release substrates.
After retirement, he led a management-consulting firm in New Brunswick, The Peter Britton Group, specializing in environmental strategy and multicultural training. Dr. Britton was a 1949 graduate of Dunbar High School in Lynchburg, Va. and received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Natural Science from Rutgers University, Newark Campus, in 1953.
He received a master’s degree in physical chemistry from Seton Hall University in 1960 and a doctorate in physical chemistry from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1967.
Dr. Britton received gubernatorial appointments to the Board of Trustees of Kean University in Union and the New Jersey Council of Environmental Quality. He was also past president of the Kidney Foundation of New Jersey.
He was a member of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Plainfield for over 40 years, and was a member of the Deacon Board. He was a United States Army veteran.
