Centenary University presidents wife dies after hit-and-run crash

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The wife of the president of Centenary University in New Jersey was killed by a hit-and-run driver while on a morning walk near campus, authorities said.

The victim, Jeanne Murphy, was a member of the US Olympic Committee and a retired US Army colonel who served in the military for three decades.

Murphy, 70, was walking along Reese Avenue in Hackettstown about 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 7 when she was struck by a 2008 Lincoln MKX SUV driven by local resident Jefferson Chimbo-Pelaez, 25, who was arrested “a short time” after the crash, Hackettstown Police Lt. Darren Tynan told The Post.

The mortally injured Murphy was transported to Hackettstown Medical Center and then flown to Morristown Medical Center where she was pronounced dead the following day at noon, the police department said.

Heartbroken members of the private liberal arts university held a candlelight vigil on campus Thursday for “First Lady” Murphy, whose husband, Bruce Murphy, has been college president since 2020.

Jeanne Murphy “was devoted to her family, as well as working to advance the futures of Centenary University students and veterans. She also took great joy in her dog, Weegee, who was adopted by the Murphys last year,” reads a tribute on the Centenary website.

Murphy was designated chef de mission — the person in charge of the national squad — for the US Paralympic Team in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. A former competitive runner and swimmer, she was the first woman selected to the US Modern Pentathlon Team in 1975.

She held a master’s degree in cardiovascular nursing and exercise physiology from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Maryland.

 A “celebration” of life for Murphy will be held on Jan. 22, at 1 p.m. in the Sitnik Theater at Centenary University’s David and Carol Lackland Center, according to her obituary. Interment will follow at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery.

Chimbo-Pelaez is being held at Warren County Correctional Facility, according to the Hackettstown PD.

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