Rochford to Retire from Co. Extension Service

CREST HAVEN – Marilou Rochford, Cape May County Extension department head, plans to retire Feb. 28. She will depart carrying the title “professor emeritus” from Rutgers University.
Freeholders honored the county’s Family and Community Health Sciences Educator and department head of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service with flowers and a resolution attesting to her decades of service to the county.
She has been with the county for 25 years, and previously worked at the Technical High School for five years as well as in other locations.
The Erma resident listened as freeholders heaped praise on the many programs Rochford has started or overseen to benefit county residents.
One of the most popular of those programs that Rochford started in 1999 is Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. Director Gerald Thornton cited the program in remarks at the freeholders’ meeting Feb. 12. That program began when Rochford perceived a growing segment of the county’s senior citizen population was raising grandchildren, some from infants through teenage years due to many family situations including incarceration, divorce, and death. Many of those grandparents were decades removed from raising youngsters, and knew little if anything of the legal and social implications that are needed to raise children.
That program, held at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension office on Court House-South Dennis Road, Court House, was visited Sept. 19, 2018 by Commissioner Carole Johnson of the New Jersey Department of Human Services.
The support group affords grandparents time to meet others in similar situations and to interact and learn from their experiences.
After that visit, in a release, Rochford stated, “Our grandparents are tasked with caring for their grandchildren as well as taking care of themselves as they age. Sometimes this is a difficult undertaking and it is important that they know the services and programs that are available to them through the State of New Jersey and the County of Cape May.”
One of the aims of the visit to the group, according to a release, was “to inform the grandparents of programs and services designed to give eligible individuals and families the help they need to find permanent solutions to a myriad of life challenges.”
“I really appreciate most that any time we asked her (Rochford) to do something, she did it willingly with a smile,” Thornton said. “You have made this county a much better place.”
Rochford said, “I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned. Thank you for touching my life. I love the partnership. I love the work I do. Sometimes I think I’m not working.”
“You will be missed,” Thornton said.
Rochford said it is still uncertain who will assume the post she held at the local extension service office. The decision who to place in the chair will be made at the university, not the county level.
The Rutgers Cooperative Extension office oversees services to residents including agricultural and 4-H clubs.