Manuel Roland “Ron” Carrillo, aged 94, died Monday, Sept. 11, 2017, at St. Clare’s Hospital in Dover, N.J.
Carrillo was born in Madison, N.J., Aug. 24, 1923, to Teodoro Carrillo-Cardona and Eleanor VanDorn. Along with his two brothers, Theodore and Alfred, and two sisters, Gloria and Anita, Carrillo attended Madison area schools. He excelled in athletic activities and was voted onto All-State football teams. Carrillo also showed an interest in writing, especially journalism, and he would spend most of his life contributing articles to or helping to support community newspapers in some capacity. After graduating high school, Carrillo enlisted in the United States Army and served in World War II. After his military service, he played semi-professional baseball and then lived in the New York City area before moving to Englewood, N.J., and later Bushkill, Pa.
Carrillo was a political activist, serving in the 1980s as Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign representative for Bergen County, N.J.; co-president of the county’s Rainbow Coalition chapter; and co-editor (with former Englewood, N.J. Mayor Dr. Walter Taylor) of The Torchbearer, a newspaper that focused on the African-American community. As a community activist, Carrillo served as a Democratic committeeman, “commissioner” of the Englewood Little League and a fundraiser and collector of food donations for charitable organizations. In his spare time, he continued to involve himself in athletic activities to the extent of becoming a semi-professional bowler.
Carrillo married twice, leaving to mourn his passing Dr. Juanita Carrillo and Deborah Carrillo, his children, Manuel Jr. and Karen Juanita Carrillo, Jamal and Aliya Richardson, and daughter-in-law Dr. Lisa J. Scott, six grand-children, two sisters-in-law, Joyce Morgan and Joann Garrison, and a host of nieces and nephews.