THE CELEBRATED ILLUSTRATOR CREATED ENDURING SCENES OF THE AMERICAN WEST

His first job in art entailed painting cows on milk wagons in Clinton, Iowa, the rural town his German parents immigrated to when Koerner was 3 years old. When he was 20, he moved to Chicago and landed a job as a staff artist at the Chicago Tribune. Koerner later relocated to New York and other East Coast locales, where he continued his illustration work and art education, before finally settling in Interlaken, N.J.

While attending Pyle’s illustration school in Wilmington, Del., Koerner was greatly influenced by the master illustrator, as well as by his fellow students, a roster that included the likes of N.C. Wyeth, Harvey Dunn and Frank Schoonover.

His first illustration for the magazine – Riding the Range, 1909 – accompanied a story about a cowboy hired to remove a homesteader from a large ranch’s unknown range. (Spoiler alert: The cowboy succumbs to the blandishments of the homesteader’s daughter instead.) The assignment was the beginning of a long and productive partnership with the Post.

Traveling to places such as Wyoming, Montana and California greatly enhanced Koerner’s paintings and illustrations. In addition to making sketches and photographs of the scenery, he would often collect Western artifacts.

Koerner’s A Charge to Keep was one of President George W. Bush’s favorite paintings. Bush was such a fan, in fact, that he brought the artwork with him to the White House and used it on the back cover of his 1999 memoir, also titled A Charge to Keep. An illustration based on the painting, which depicts horsemen charging up a rugged trail, first appeared in a 1916 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.

His weekly comic strip Hugo Hercules began its four-month run in the Chicago Tribune in September 1902. Though the strip was unsuccessful, its main character – a kindhearted gent who used his superhuman strength to help people out of jams – is considered by some to be the world’s first superhero.

By the time of his death, in 1938, Koerner had created more than 2,000 illustrations that were published in a variety of popular magazines, most notably The Saturday Evening Post. He also illustrated a number of books by Western writers such as Zane Grey and Eugene Manlove Rhodes.

Heritage Auctions’ Feb. 25 Art of the West Showcase Auction features two works by Koerner: Let’s Drop Over to the Office (estimate: $10,000-$15,000), an oil-on-canvas that later appeared as an interior illustration in a 1926 edition of The Saturday Evening Post, and another oil-on-canvas titled When Tempers Grow Raw (estimate: $4,000-$6,000).

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Contact: Lawrence Hajna (609) 984-1795 Caryn Shinske (609) 984-1795 Vincent Grassi (609) 984-1795

(23/P022) TRENTON – The Department of Environmental Protection is awarding 23 Urban and Community Forestry grants totaling $1,106,934 to local governments and non-profit organizations to help municipalities advance the stewardship of their urban and community trees and forests, Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette announced today.

Awarded through a competitive process since 2000, the DEP’s Urban and Community Forestry grants assist in the establishment and growth of local, self-sustaining urban and community forestry programs. With proper care and maintenance, trees in community and urban settings can be healthy and live many decades. Today’s announcement is made on the International Day of Forests, which the United Nations General Assembly established in 2012 to raise awareness about the importance of forests.

“The stewardship of urban trees has never been more important than now, especially as New Jersey continues to experience the adverse impacts of a changing climate,” Commissioner LaTourette said. “These grants will help improve the urban tree canopy throughout the state providing ecosystem services, reducing heat island effects and improving human health. Proper planning and management of trees and forests also mitigates storm water and other flooding, as well as air pollution.”

Funding for the 2022 grants comes from the “Treasure Our Trees” state license plate sales and the New Jersey Forest Service’s No Net Loss Compensatory Reforestation Program.

“Trees and forests are important to New Jerseyans on so many levels. Trees store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases and energy use, which lessens the impacts of climate change and strengthens the resilience of towns and cities, said John Cecil, Assistant Commissioner for State Parks, Forests & Historic Sites. “It is a priority of the New Jersey Forest Service to not only plant trees in communities and urban areas, but to ensure their long-term survival through proper planning, care and management.”

Reforestation and tree planting grants totaling $598,216 have been awarded to:

Bergen County: Bogota ($40,000), Englewood ($66,830) Burlington County: Moorestown ($8,000) Hunterdon County: Clinton Town ($25,000) Middlesex County: Highland Park ($150,000) and East Brunswick Township ($30,000) Monmouth County: Interlaken Shade Tree Commission ($42,150) Morris County: Pequannock Township Department of Public Works ($50,000) Passaic County: Clifton ($49,026) Somerset County: Somerville ($137,210)

Resiliency planning grants totaling $508,718 have been awarded to:

Bergen County: Ramsey ($20,000) Camden County: Haddonfield Shade Tree Commission ($50,000) Essex County: Caldwell ($11,258) and Essex County ($20,000) Hunterdon County: Lambertville ($37,000) and Readington Township Environmental Commission ($50,000) Mercer County: Trenton ($50,000) and Princeton ($50,000) Morris County: Morris County Park Commission ($50,000) Monmouth County: Long Branch ($50,000) and Millstone Township ($50,000) Warren County: Lopatcong ($46,145) and Belvidere ($24,315)

Grant recipients may use their awards for a variety of projects such as community tree inventories, risk tree assessments, storm assessments, tree planting and establishment, and reforestation. Local governments also use the grants to manage impacts from invasive species such as emerald ash borer, an invasive tree-killing beetle causing widespread losses of ash trees nationwide.

“A comprehensive local urban and community forestry program provides environmental, social and economic benefits,” said Todd Wyckoff, New Jersey State Forester. “An urban tree canopy is part of a community’s infrastructure and creates valuable environmental, economic and social benefits. Communities that are accredited with the New Jersey Urban and Community Forestry Program have a Community Forestry Management Plan, participate in required training and education programs, and report back to the program on their accomplishments every year.”

Currently, 253 municipalities and counties across New Jersey have management plans for trees and forests approved by the New Jersey Forest Service, 152 of which are fully accredited with the Urban and Community Forestry Program. The program hopes to announce a new round of grants in 2023 aimed at urban and community tree inventory to help inform local management decisions moving forward.

For more information about the New Jersey Urban and Community Forestry Program, including details on accreditation with the program, visit www.communityforestry.nj.gov

Like the New Jersey Forest Service on Facebook at www.facebook.com/newjerseyforests

For more information on how to purchase the Treasure Our Trees commercial or passenger vehicle license plate, which funds the New Jersey Urban and Community Forestry grants, visit https://nj.gov/mvc/vehicles/treasure.htm

For more about Urban and Community Forestry Stewardship grants and related programs, visit www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/forest/urbanandcommunity/grants.html

Follow Commissioner LaTourette on Twitter and Instagram @shawnlatur and follow the DEP on Twitter @NewJerseyDEP, Facebook @newjerseydep, Instagram @nj.dep and LinkedIn @newjerseydep

PHOTO: Forester Levon Bigelow inspecting a tree planted under a NJUCF stewardship grant.

“I’m proud New Jersey is my home. Yeah said I’m proud now New Jersey is my home.” So sings Bruce Springsteen in – you guessed it – New Jersey is My Home.

Whoever buys Darlington, a majestic estate built in 1907, will be mighty proud New Jersey is their home, too.

The 58-room mansion on a five-hectare parcel of land in the exclusive Mahwah township has been described as the American Versailles, rivalling Gilded Age mansions in Newport, Rhode Island.

Over the past seven years, the three-storey James Brite-designed home has undergone a meticulous renovation.

Mechanical systems and bathrooms have been replaced. Italian wood-carvers were among the team of architects, designers and artisans involved in the upgrade.

Now offering 4600 square metres of living space, the heritage-listed property features a great hall with a 1906 pipe organ, a mural-walled library, restaurant-style kitchen, wine cellar, cigar room, beauty salon, pools, steam room, tennis court, eight-car garage and staff quarters.

It’s listed through Christie’s International Real Estate affiliate Special Properties with a guide of US$48 million (about $61 million).

Special Properties agent Sonja Cullaro says northern New Jersey, which is part of the New York City metropolitan area, is one of the most affluent parts of the United States, offering a huge range of architectural styles.

“This area has historically been a place where people settle to enjoy a high-quality, sophisticated lifestyle in more spacious, lush, green settings, while still being just a short distance away from New York City,” Cullaro says.

Cullaro says the luxury market in Northern New Jersey has performed strongly and consistently lately, with proximity to the bright lights of New York City one of the region’s strongest drawcards.

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Wall Street executives, business owners and celebrities are among those who call the area home, lured by low property taxes, top schools and park-like surroundings, not to mention easy access to great shops, cultural attractions, restaurants and outdoor recreation.

“We believe the outlook for 2018 and beyond is extremely positive.”

“Yes,” Cullaro says. “There are generally no restrictions to foreigners purchasing property here.”

$16.2 million

A nine-bedroom estate on the edge of the Manasquan River in Brielle, about an hour’s drive from New York City.

$7.6 million

A six-bedroom French chateau-inspired home in the suburb of Saddle River, complete with slate roof, pool and waterfall.

$2.9 million

An eight-bedroom home in Interlaken, New Jersey. The 1929 Tudor-style home has an original chestnut staircase.

When doctors told Arnaldo Silva of Middlesex, NJ, that he had breast cancer, he was dumbstruck.

“They were talking Chinese to me,” Silva, 68, tells The Post. He hadn’t even known that a man could get breast cancer.

His shock was compounded a month later, when his 33-year-old daughter, Vanessa, was diagnosed with the same disease.

At that point, oncologists urged father and daughter to get tested for BRCA gene mutations, which Silva had never heard of before. He and his daughter both tested positive.

Mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes — which are responsible for repairing damage to our DNA — are inherited traits that increase a person’s chance of developing several types of cancer. There is a 50 percent chance of carriers passing a mutation on to their offspring, as Silva did.

Normally, BRCA genes “have a protective effect” against cancer, Dr. Susan Domchek, director of the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania, tells The Post. But mutations stop those genes from doing their job. As a result, carriers are likelier to develop cancers earlier in life than noncarriers — and more aggressive cancers, too. The Basser Center estimates that as many as 1 in 500 people are carriers of the mutation; that population rises to 1 in 40 among Ashkenazi Jews.

BRCA mutations are widely considered a women’s-health issue. It’s not untrue: Female carriers have up to a 75 percent chance of developing breast cancer and up to a 50 percent chance of developing ovarian cancer.

But men can also inherit and pass down this gene mutation — as well as its life-threatening effects.

Of the two mutations, “BRCA2 is more strongly associated with risks to men,” Domchek says. Male carriers’ breast-cancer risk can rise by 10 percent and their prostate cancer risk by 25 percent. Both male and female carriers see their pancreatic-cancer and melanoma risks rise by 5 percent.

While women’s risk numbers may be more staggering, male carriers face a unique set of challenges.

The first is lack of awareness: For every 10 women who get tested for BRCA mutations, only one man does, according to a study published this June in the Journal of the American Medical Association — a stat that underscores how many men mistakenly believe themselves exempt from the threat.

That was the case for Harvey Singer. The accounts director from Rochester, NY, was devastated when his mom and sister were both diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995 — but never imagined that he would one day suffer with them.

“I thought, ‘I’m not going to get breast cancer. I’m a guy,’ ” Singer, now 64, tells The Post.

Eleven years and two relapses later, his sister, Vicki, learned she was a carrier of the BRCA2 gene mutation. She urged her brother to get tested. He didn’t. Six months later, he was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 51, and prostate cancer a year and a half after that. When he did finally get tested, about a year after his sister’s initial suggestion, he tested positive.

Fortunately, Singer’s in remission from both diseases today, but he still regrets “waiting to get sick” and not getting the test sooner. Today, he and his sister run HIS Breast Cancer, a foundation that educates men at risk for the disease about how to “be proactive.”

But what does being proactive mean for men with a BRCA mutation? While women can take preventative surgical measures to reduce their cancer risk — like having hysterectomies or mastectomies, as BRCA1 carrier Angelina Jolie famously did in 2013 — men’s options are much more limited. “You can’t . . . preventively remove a pancreas, and you’re not going to preventively remove a prostate,” Domchek says. She believes the real benefit of BRCA testing for men is early detection: “It would allow us to give targeted medical intervention and to cure it if it is caught at the right time.”

Steven Merlin is a living, breathing example of how valuable knowing your family history can be. “I’m a walking miracle,” says Merlin, of Interlaken, NJ. In 2012, the former med-tech worker was suddenly diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Like Singer and Silva, he had a family history of cancer, which he frequently reminded his care team about. His doctors decided to have him tested for the BRCA mutation — and when he came out positive, he was able to enter a clinical trial available only to patients with BRCA. He still takes medicine from that trial today, and his multiple tumors have shrunk or completely disappeared. “I’m living a great life,” he says.

Silva hopes that in the future he and his daughter can say the same with confidence. Today, he is in remission after a double mastectomy; Vanessa has relapsed twice. He isn’t sure he’ll ever heal from the horror of passing down the gene: “I’m alive, but I’m still walking around with this guilt trip,” he says.

These days, he dedicates his time to the Male Breast Cancer Coalition, a foundation that raises awareness about the disease’s impact on men. He also shares his story, in the hopes that “no other families have to go through what I’ve gone through.”

“I hope I’m around to hear that this disease has been conquered,” Silva says. But, for now, “If I can help somebody, whatever it is — [if I can] prevent cancer in somebody else — I’ll take it. Sign me up.”

PITMAN, NJ --- The College of New Jersey senior Charlotte Roarty (Interlaken, NJ/High Technology/Shore Regional) and New Jersey City University freshman Sophia Jurina (Munich, Germany/Carl-Spitzweg-Gymnasium) have been named the New Jersey Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis Player and Rookie of the Year respectively for the 2023 season.

Their selections highlighted the 10-member NJAC Women’s Tennis All-Conference Team which was announced on April 27. All selections were made by a vote of the league’s seven head coaches and were based on conference-only match results.

Roarty was named the NJAC Player of the Year for the third straight year after posting a perfect 6-0 record in top-flight NJAC singles play and owns a 15-2 overall singles record this spring. She is also currently ranked as the No. 3 singles player in Region 2. Roarty once again teamed with Jenny Landells to produce a perfect 6-0 mark in top-flight NJAC doubles play this season and the duo is also ranked No. 3 in Region 2 doubles. Earlier this year, the duo advanced to the ITA Northeast Regional semifinals. In her four seasons in Ewing, Roarty has recorded a combined 47-0 record in NJAC singles and doubles play.

A three-time NJAC Rookie of the Week selection, Jurina wrapped up her rookie season with a 6-0 record in NJAC singles play between the No. 3 and No. 4 spots. She won two matches by 6-0, 6-0 scores and all her matches in straight sets. She currently owns a 10-3 overall singles record. Jurina went 5-1 in doubles play, splitting time between No. 2 and No. 3. In three matches paired with Vanshita Malhotra at No. 2, the pair won all three including handing TCNJ its first conference doubles loss in a decade. She was also paired twice with Mar Julia and once with Lockslea Mayers at No. 3 doubles, winning two of the three matches.

TCNJ head coach Scott Dicheck was selected as the Flo Labenski Coach of the Year by his peers for the 13th time in his career. He led the Lions to the 2023 NJAC regular season title with a 6-0 mark and the top seed in the NJAC Women’s Tennis Tournament. In 23 seasons at the helm of the Lions program, Dicheck has extended TCNJ’s conference win streak to 208-0, the longest known active conference streak in the nation, with 128 of those wins during his tenure.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Charlotte Roarty, TCNJ ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Sophia Jurina, NJCU FLO LABENSKI COACH OF THE YEAR: Scott Dicheck, TCNJ