Melvin R. Primas, Jr. 

 

Melvin R. Primas, Jr., the ninth Commissioner of DCA, was appointed by Governor James J. Florio in 1990.

At the time of his appointment, Commissioner Primas was serving his third term as Mayor of Camden, after being elected in 1981 and re-elected in 1985 and 1989.  In 1973, at the age of 23, he was elected to the Camden City Council, the youngest councilman in the City’s history.  He was re-elected in 1977 and later became council president.

Primas received his bachelor’s degree from Howard University in 1971. He then worked for the Black People’s Unity Movement, a local nonprofit development corporation.  Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, he served on the New Jersey Commission on Employment and Training, the State Planning Commission, the Governor’s Council on New Jersey Outdoors and as chairman of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

Commissioner Primas died in 2012.

DCA 50th Anniversary