Guy Sterling (born Sept. 23, 1948) is an American journalist, author and historian. He spent most of his 35-year newspaper career as a reporter with The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, primarily covering the courts and criminal justice matters, the Meadowlands Sports Complex and the New Jersey Mafia.
Background and early life
Sterling was born on September 23, 1948, in Orange, New Jersey. He has his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and a master's degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (class of 1972). Sterling began his daily newspaper career in 1970 as a municipal government reporter with the The Courier-News in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Sterling was a lead reporter in The Star-Ledger’s coverage of the fatal dormitory fire at Seton Hall University in 2000, stories that continued for years and earned the paper its first-ever selection as a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Other major stories he covered were as follows:
1981 – The opening of the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ, on July 2, featuring a Bruce Springsteen concert. In later years, he covered the New York Giants' first two Super Bowl appearances, two NCAA men’s basketball Final Fours (one of them at the Meadowlands) and the 1994 men’s World Cup in the U.S.
1982 - An investigative piece he wrote on the growing problem of missing persons in New Jersey led the state Legislature to create a Division of Missing Persons within the New Jersey State Police.
1982 – Sterling was the only New Jersey-based reporter to interview Richard Nixon after the former president moved to the New York area to rehabilitate his image in the final years of his life. They spoke on two occasions.
1982 – From the day of the incident until sentencing four years later, Sterling was the lead reporter in the case of the first New Jersey state trooper to be found guilty in connection with a duty-related death.
1984 – President Ronald Reagan's campaign speech in a church gym during Hoboken's St. Ann's festival on July 26.
1988 - Broke the story that reputed Genovese crime family boss and former prizefighter John DiGiglio had gone missing and was later found murdered.
1988 – Jesse Jackson's day-long tour of New Jersey on May 29 during the 1988 Democratic presidential primary campaign.
1990 – Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan's funeral at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Newark in April 1990.
1990 – Frank Sinatra’s concert at the Meadowlands Arena in December 1990 marking the singer's 75th birthday. Sterling also reported on Sinatra receiving an honorary doctorate from Stevens Institute of Technology in his hometown of Hoboken, NJ.
1992-93 – Sterling covered the longest criminal trial in New Jersey state court history, a year-long racketeering case in Newark against Robert "Cabert" Bisaccia and other reputed members of the Gambino crime family's New Jersey crew that ended in the convictions of all but one of the defendants.
1995 – The federal corruption trial of Newark councilmen Gary Harris and Ralph Grant Jr. that ended in convictions.
1998 – Sterling also spent 18 years working to free New Jersey inmate Vincent James Landano, who was wrongfully convicted of killing an off-duty Newark policeman during the robbery of a Kearny, NJ, check-cashing business in August 1976. After years of legal wrangling, the conviction was eventually overturned and Landano was acquitted of all charges at a 1998 retrial in Jersey City.
2003 - Sterling was the lead reporter on a series of stories about three brothers who were locked in the basement of a Newark apartment house, one of whom (Faheem Williams) died and had his remains stuffed in a plastic bin while the other two were starved and left to perish. That coverage won the National Association of Black Journalists and New Jersey Press Association awards for best breaking news coverage of the year and resulted in changes in child welfare laws throughout the country.
2007 - The most prestigious individual award that Sterling won was the national ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music writing, stories he managed to squeeze in around his daily reporting assignments. His love of music led him to organize the Newark Jazz Elders, a group of aging musicians who were recognized in 2007 by New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine as New Jersey’s “living legends jazz band.” He led the drive and contributed half the money to place a bronze burial plaque on what had been the unmarked grave of Newark keyboard player Larry Young Jr. and also paid for a headstone to be placed on the grave of North Carolina bluesman and onetime Newark resident "Carolina Slim" (Eddie Paul Harris).
2007 - Broke the story that reputed Genovese crime family capo Michael Coppola was arrested on Manhattan’s Upper West Side after 11 years as a fugitive from a Bridgewater, NJ, mob execution.
2008 - When he retired from the paper, Sterling was given a plaque for his coverage of organized crime by the U.S. Justice Department and a retirement party by the mob. The Sopranos creator David Chase credited one of his stories with serving as the theme for the series’ 2003 season, shows that were honored the following year with the primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, the first time a cable TV program won the award.
Following retirement in 2009, Sterling became involved in a number of civic projects in Newark:
2009 – Delivered one of three keynote addresses at an all-day conference on revitalizing Newark Symphony Hall. Rutgers professor Clement Alexander Price and NJPAC CEO Larry Goldman were the other presenters.
2010 – Spearheaded the drive to erect a bronze statue of Newark native and U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. at the top of the steps of the Hall of Records on King Boulevard in Newark.
2010 - Organized and moderated the centennial commemoration of a fire that claimed the lives of 26 lady garment workers in a Newark sweatshop, the city’s worst fatal fire.
2011 – Organized and moderated a program to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Newark’s famous Abraham Lincoln statue, The Seated Lincoln, by sculptor Gutzon Borglum.
2012 – Assembled and installed a permanent exhibit to the Lincoln statue inside Essex County’s historic courthouse at personal expense.
2012 - Organized and moderated a ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the George Washington statue in Newark’s Washington Park.
2012 – Led a commemoration on the 150th anniversary of Gen. Philip Kearny’s death at the site of his statue in Newark’s Military Park.
2013 – Organized and moderated a ceremony on the steps of Newark City Hall to remember John F. Kennedy and his visits to Newark on the 50th anniversary of the former president’s assassination.
2013 – Delivered the keynote address at an Orange Street ceremony dedicating a historic marker to remember the 26 women who died in Newark’s 1910 factory fire.
2014 – Organized and moderated a panel discussion on The Star-Ledger’s departure from Newark, a move that left the city without a daily newspaper for the first time in 175 years.
2015 – Organized and moderated a program commemorating the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death, an event held at Newark’s Lincoln statue.
2016 – Organized and moderated a year-long series of monthly conversations with notable Newarkers at the Newark Public Library as part of the city’s celebration of its 350th anniversary. The series was entitled "Newark Lifetimes: Recollections and Reflections" and included a conversation with Newark's mayor Ras Baraka.
2016 - Spearheaded a drive to save Newark's nationally landmarked historic Krueger Mansion. Sterling's progress was followed in articles by several German news organizations, including Deutsche Welle.
2016 – Delivered the keynote address at the Grace Episcopal Church ceremony marking Newark’s 350th anniversary.
2016 - Delivered the keynote presentation at the Newark Public Library’s inaugural Newark Literary Festival, an address that focused on authors Claude Brown, Robert Elliott Burns and James Warner Bellah.
2016 – Led the first-ever tour of historic German-American sites in Newark for the Deutscher Club of Clark, NJ.
2016 – Produced the “Two Centuries of Piano Passion” show featuring Seymour Bernstein at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark (NJPAC).
Author and independent researcher
Sterling is the author of two books: Elvis in Roanoke, published in 1977 when he was a reporter with The Roanoke Times & World-News in Roanoke, VA, and The Famous, the Familiar and the Forgotten: 350 Notable Newarkers in 2014. In 2011 and 2012, Sterling wrote and produced a series of radio pieces on Newark’s history for WBGO Jazz Radio 88.3 in Newark.
