OBITUARY Leonard E. Diamond Jr., 54, died Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.
Funeral services will be held on Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. in the McCriskin-Gustafson Home for Funerals (mccriskinfuneralhome.com), followed by an 11:30 a.m. Funeral Mass at Sacred Heart R.C. Church, South Plainfield. Interment will follow in Holy Redeemer Cemetery, South Plainfield. Visitation will be held on Monday from 2 to 4 and 6 to 9 p.m. in the fu- neral home.
Born in Edison, Len was raised in South Plainfield and lived in Kendall Park before settling in Branchburg.
He was employed as a consultant to the transit security industry and as an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck. Prior to leaving the NJ Transit Police, with 20 years of transit security experience, in 2005, Len was the director of intelligence, system security training and the office of emergency management for the NJ Transit Police.
He began his law enforcement career as a police officer with the Middlesex County Department of Police and Public Safety, MCC, Edison, in 1973.
In 1985, he started his transportation career with the NJ Transit Bus Operations Security Department. With the creation of the NJ Transit Police Department in 1992, Mr. Diamond assumed responsibility as manager of the police support services and emergency management division of the Transit Police Department.
In 2002, Mr. Diamond was the first senior security and emergency management specialist for the Federal Transit Administration in Washington, D.C., after 9/11, coordinating the FTA "Connecting Communities" national program with the transit and first responders. Mr. Diamond was also a certified train-the-trainer instructor for the Division of the NJ State Police. He was a senior associate staff member for the DOT, FTA/TSI in Oklahoma City.
His instruction specialties included effectively managing transit emergencies with the National Incident Management System (NIMS); transit system security and threat management and emergency response to bus and rail hijackings.
Mr. Diamond, who earned bachelor of arts and master's of administrative science degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, also served as chair of the American Public Transportation Association Committee on Public Safety, representing transit police chiefs and directors of transit security. He was also a member of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Emergency Services Higher Education Committee.
In addition, Len was a member of the NY-NJ Detectives Crime Clinic in New York City and the NJ State Traffic Officers Association. During his younger years, he was a member of both the South Plainfield and Plainfield rescue squads.
On August 24, 1974, Len married Marie R. (Bornheimer) Diamond. In addition to Marie, Len is survived by his three children, Colleen Diamond, and Anthony L. and James E. Diamond, all of Branchburg; his parents, Leonard Sr. and Mary E. of Florida; three sisters, Elizabeth Baldwin of Pennsylvania, Mary Ellen Diamond and Bernadette Elias and her husband, Julius, all of Florida; and by his brother, Anthony, also of Florida. Len is also survived by a host of relatives and friends.
