Moorestown’s 2025 Citizen of the Year, John O’Meara Jr. (fourth from left), with past recipients of the award. It recognizes residents whose community service has contributed to the quality of life in the township.
John O’Meara, Jr., the township’s 2025 Citizen of the Year, celebrated the honor with family, friends and neighbors on Feb. 5.
He did so at the 72nd annual dinner meeting of the combined service clubs of Moorestown at the Community House. The award recognizes residents whose community service has significantly contributed to the quality of life in the township. Honorees are chosen from nominations made by Moorestown residents.
“John has been helping whatever community he’s lived in for all of his life, even while holding demanding, professional positions and raising a wonderful family with (wife), Mary Anne,” said speaker Karen Olejarz. “John comes by his commitment to service honestly. His mother’s college motto was, ‘Not to be ministered unto, but to minister,’ and his father encouraged and supported John’s becoming an Eagle Scout.
O’Meara started volunteer and community work in 1978, when he joined the Moorestown Rotary Club. Over the next eight years, he was a Rotary board member; chairman of the Rotary Youth Exchange; president of the Moorestown United Fund; a board member of the Burlington County United Way; and treasurer of the Moorestown Improvement Association.
In 1986, O’Meara and his family moved north to follow his career at Inductotherm Corp., settling in Long Island. After returning to Moorestown in 1996, O’Meara reunited with the Rotary Lunch Club, later serving as club president for a year. He expanded his Moorestown involvement serving on various boards, including the Moorestown Free Library Association (also known as the Friends of the Moorestown Library); the Walden School summer music camp for youth composers; and the Moorestown School of Music, which he and Mary Anne founded.
“With the Friends of the Moorestown Library, John works to make our library a place of intellectual, creative and cultural happenings,” Olejarz noted. “The O’Meara’s are devoted library patrons, so I know that this mission is close to both of their hearts.”
O’Meara was born in 1947, the oldest son of Ricki and John O’Meara Sr. After attending high school at St. Louis Priory School for Boys in Missouri and becoming an Eagle Scout, he attended Princeton University, earning a degree in chemical engineering. After graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the Navy and spent four years on three ships.
O’Meara married his wife of 51 years and they moved to California, where he earned an MBA at Stanford.
“I appreciate very much what John does for the community, and continues to do,” said Monique Begg, the 2024 Citizen of the Year. ” … I have a feeling that, indirectly, he touched every home, every family in Moorestown, and that’s so very important to reach out to people, with a message of love and inclusion.”
O’Meara reflected on volunteerism in the community at the awards dinner.
“Volunteers make this place such a terrific place to be,” O’Meara observed. “Our great schools, library, picturesque Main Street and so much else of Moorestown, are accredited to the volunteers past and present, including many of you here tonight …
“I know of no better way to build and keep friends than choosing to be of service to others,” he added. “You meet people, you find common purpose … and you receive a sense of belonging and connection. My wish for myself and for each of you here tonight is to serve others and to be a friend.”
Earlier in the dinner program, proclamations were offered by Mayor Quinton Law, the Burlington County Board of Commissioners and the New Jersey senate and assembly. Moorestown High senior Kaitlyn Roberts received the Good Citizen award.
“(John) is an example of what a Moorestonian should be,” state Sen. Troy Singleton stated. “One who is welcoming, one who cares about their neighbor and one who is willing to be a servant leader.”
