Mayor Robert Greenbaum: A Life Well-Lived

As the tenure of Robert Greenbaum’s time as Mayor of Mount Olive Township concludes in 2023, Mount Olive Life presents a four-part, quarterly series which talks about his life and accomplishments.

For our January 2023 issue, we’ll discuss with the Mayor his childhood and upbringing.

Mayor Greenbaum has lived in Mount Olive since 1997, but he originally grew up in New City, New York. “It was very suburban,” he says. “30 miles or so north of New York City, bordered by New Jersey and the Hudson River. It was just a great place to grow up.”

Greenbaum was raised by his parents, Kurt (deceased) and Marilyn, and he has three siblings. Linda and Nancy were his older sisters, and Daniel was his younger brother.

Greenbaum, 60, attended Little Tor Elementary School and Clarkstown Middle School, and afterwards graduated from Clarkstown North High School in 1980. While at the high school, he was a member of the Cross-Country team, and he was the captain of the club during his junior season. He also served as circulation manager for the yearbook, but also got a foretaste in something that would be a prominent part of his future and life.

It was at Clarkstown North that Greenbaum first got involved in politics. He was fortunate enough to work on the campaign for a math teacher and wrestling coach at the high school who was running for Town Supervisor, Theodore Dusanenko. He avidly participated. "I'm not sure that anybody really inspired me; more so I just kind of fell into leadership roles in the things that I got involved with,” Greenbaum says. “I just happened to know the teacher, and I thought that it was good to get involved. I did menial campaign stuff like stuffing envelopes and putting up signs for him. I only think of it in terms of how I got started, and it's rare that I think of that. But anytime that I'm talking about my history in terms of political involvement, it starts there.”

Greenbaum also notes that, while at Clarkstown North High School, Cross-Country was not the only sport he took part in. He was also an avid Ultimate Frisbee player. The sport was founded in 1968 in New Jersey. “I played at the high school, but then I got more involved. A friend of mine was at Union College (Schenectady, New York) and I would guest with them at different tournaments, just playing at a college level. And then at the State University of New York at Oneonta, I played on the Ultimate Frisbee team, which is competitive. You play other schools through a system of tournaments up to the national tournament, which generally was held in California every year, or in Boston.”

Four our April 2023 issue, we’ll highlight more of the Mayor’s college and law school years, and discuss with him why he chose and value his profession.