J. Owen Grundy

{{short description|American journalist}}

File:J. Owen Grundy Park at Exchange Place.jpg

File:Jersey City Day 33 2014 (12268102325).jpg

J. Owen Grundy ( March 8, 1911 - January, 1985) was a native of Jersey City, New Jersey{{Cite web |url=http://www.folsp.org/j__owen_grundy.htm |title=Jersey City Reporter |access-date=2010-02-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227090638/http://www.folsp.org/j__owen_grundy.htm |archive-date=2012-02-27 |url-status=dead }} and was until his death, its official historian and chairman of the city's Municipal Historic Districts Commission.{{Citation |title=J. Owen Grundy Dead at 73; Official Jersey City Historian |newspaper=New York Times |date=January 30, 1985 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/30/nyregion/j-owen-grundy-dead-at-73-official-jersey-city-historian.html?scp=1&sq=&st=nyt}} A Hudson River waterfront park at Exchange Place is named in his honor.[http://www.cityofjerseycity.com/uploadedFiles/Public_Notices/Press_Releases/J.%20Owen%20Grundy%20Park%20Re-Opening%20Press%20Release.pdf Mayor Healy & Nanette Grundy to Cut Ribbon for the Grand Re-Opening & Re-Dedication of the J. Owen Grundy Park] JC press release: park rededication 2008

Grundy wrote The History of Jersey City,{{cite book

|last=Grundy

|first=J. Owen

|title=The History of Jersey City (1609 - 1976)

|year=1975

|publisher=Walter E. Knight

|location=Jersey City

|isbn=

|chapter=A Dutch Legacy

|page=5}}

published in honor of the 1976 American Bicentennial and about 50 monographs on historic subjects related to Hudson County, New Jersey. He was among the founders of the Brownstone Revival Committee in Jersey City and the Preservation and Restoration Association of Jersey City and had served five terms as president of the Jersey City Museum Association.

From 1946 to 1959, Grundy was a reporter and associate editor of The Villager in Greenwich Village, where he was a leader in the preservation movement. Along with Audrey Zapp, Theodore Conrad, and Morris Pesin,[http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=13294 Morris Pesin Marker in LSP] Grundy was influential in the environmental and preservation movement that led to the creation of Liberty State Park.{{Citation |last=Grundy |first=J. Owen |title=Visiting Editorial–Keep our park |newspaper=The Jersey Journal |date=June 22, 1982 |url=http://www.folsp.org/grundy_editorial.htm |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720184650/http://www.folsp.org/grundy_editorial.htm |archivedate=July 20, 2011 }}

The J. Owen Grundy Award is given annually for preservation projects in the city.{{Cite web |url=http://www.jclandmarks.org/2008PreservationAwards.shtml |title=2008 Preservation Awards |access-date=2010-04-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726202825/http://www.jclandmarks.org/2008PreservationAwards.shtml |archive-date=2011-07-26 |url-status=dead }}