By Ken Chrusz and Richard D. Smith | Posted March 13, 2026
Women’s History Month is a fitting time to honor two outstanding public servants and political path makers: Grace A. Gurisic, first woman mayor of the Borough of Rocky Hill, and Cathy Frank-White, first woman mayor of Montgomery Township.
Grace A. Gurisic
Born in 1934, Grace A. Gurisic was elected to Rocky Hill Borough Council in 1956 at age 22. Just two years later, she was elected Rocky Hill mayor, and the following year elected a Somerset County Freeholder, thus becoming both the first female Rocky Hill Mayor and the first female Somerset County Freeholder — all by age 25.
Gurisic graduated from Princeton High School (Montgomery and Rocky Hill sent its students there in the decades before Montgomery High was built). She voted as soon as she came of age in 1955.
At the time of her election of mayor, she was working as registrar of the McKinley Hospital of Nursing in Trenton and also helping on weekends in the administrative office of Princeton Hospital: all this while studying business administration at Rider College and being active in state politics as vice-president of the N.J. Young Democrats.
“The election is considered quite a feat,” reported the Princeton Herald of November 12, 1958. “Not only is Miss Gurisic a woman (Red Bank is the only other community in the state with a woman mayor), but she is a Democrat in a predominately Republican village.”
And, according to her obituary, she had also become the youngest mayor in America in 1958.
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Gurisic later worked at the NJ Conservation Economic Development Department and, from 1960 to 1993, was a special assistant to Congressman Robert A. Roe of the NJ 8th congressional district.
The Princeton Herald article went on to reveal a vital factor in Grace Gurisic’s political success against expectations: “Miss Gurisic sought votes for mayor in the same way she solicited them when she was elected to the Rocky Hill Council in 1956. She visited every home in the community.”
Gurisic died in June 2018 at age 84.
Cathy Frank-White
Although numerous women have now served at mayors of Montgomery Township, the first was Cathy Frank-White, selected in 1983.
She was also Montgomery’s first female police commissioner, and as such was a huge supporter not only of the township’s police department, but of its fire departments and emergency medical services as well.
Frank-White graduated from Montclair State University in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in education, then earned a masters degree in education by the College of New Jersey in 1978.
She was active in the U.S. Department of Defense’s Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Program. In this capacity, on June 2, 1975, she paid a surprise visit to one of the author’s of this article when he was Staff Sgt. Kenneth Chrusz of Montgomery Township who served with the 50th Armored Division of the N.J. Army National Guard and was doing battlefield training at Fort Drum, NY.
As mayor, Frank-White facilitated Montgomery’s adoption of a more traditional police department structuring. (At the time, Montgomery was the only NJ force without traditional officers’ ranks.)
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At the November 1, 1984, Montgomery Township Committee meeting she presided over the swearing in of Officer Chrusz, Charles Person, and Robert Melnick as the township’s first police sergeants. In the early 2000s, Frank-White she served as executive director of the NJ State Association of Chiefs of Police.
Frank-White also actively encouraged the growth of local business, serving from 2000 to 2003 as president/CEO of the Greater Mercer County Chamber of Commerce.
From 1987 to 2000, she worked as manager of government relations for the Wakefern Food Corporation — the largest retailers’ cooperative group of supermarkets. ShopRite is a subsidiary.
From 2003 to 2014, she handled community and government relations for the Hopewell Valley Community Bank. In June 2014, after many such years of business and community service, Frank-White entered into a well-deserved retirement in Florida.
Unfortunately, efforts to contact her for this Women’s History Month article have been unsuccessful. Any readers who are in touch with Frank-White are encouraged to contact The Montgomery News editor at editor@ themontynews.com.
