Obituary of Frances Drew

Frances H. Drew (née Maraziti) of Chatham Boro and Manasquan, has died. She was 83 at the time of her passing on Friday, March 28th, 2025. Fran leaves behind her husband of 47 years, John W. “Jack” Drew; a brother, Sal Maraziti; and two sisters, Roseanne Maraziti and Mary Coleman. She was pre-deceased by her parents, Salvatore and Madeline Maraziti and brothers Albert and Peter Maraziti. Born in Boonton, she moved with her family at five years old to Manasquan where she grew up. As a teenager, she worked at the Algonquin movie theater on Main Street in Manasquan, little knowing that she would one day be a co-owner of that theater. A graduate of Manasquan High, she earned a BA from St. Elizabeth’s College in Convent Station in 1962.

After graduation, she and her sister took a trip to Africa, which began a lifelong passion for travel that would take her to over 38 countries on 6 continents.

Professionally, Fran began her career at Ciba Pharmaceuticals in Summit as a chemist and retired as Vice President of Production from Sutton Laboratories in Chatham. It was during this period that, as a member of the Chatham Chamber of Commerce, while helping the Chamber find a tenant to replace a former bakery, Fran decided to lease 262 Main Street and open a café. Modelled after the patisseries she loved in Switzerland and Paris, the Café Beethoven served high end baked goods from area bakeries and boasted the first espresso machine on Main Street.

Fran married Jack Drew in 1978 and shortly thereafter they purchased a home on Inwood Road, where they still lived at the time of her passing. As a resident of Chatham, Fran spearheaded the campaign to build the gazebo, designed by an architect she met in Hudson, Ohio, in Reasoner Park. She also served on the Chatham Borough Shade Tree Commission and helped to earn Chatham a designation as a Tree City USA community in 2001. For several years, Fran could be heard playing the bass drum in the Chatham Community Band. Not long after opening Café Beethoven in 1982, Fran and Jack bought the building at 262 Main Street and renamed it the Drew Building, which they owned until they sold it in 2005. Fran kept her ties to Manasquan close. She and Jack built and sold many homes there, one of which, at 111 3rd Avenue, was the first solar-designed home in town. In 1992, Fran and Jack, along with Fran’s brother Sal Maraziti and his wife, Joyce, bought the abandoned Algonquin Theater, where Fran had enjoyed working as a teenager, and co-founded Algonquin Arts, a non-profit corporation, with the intention of not only transforming the theater, but also the surrounding area. Thus began the long process of refurbishing the property. It was a labor of love and Fran had a talent for bringing people together to help with the refurbishment; she could make any job, from refinishing the original theater seats to painting the outside of the building, seem more like fun than work. In 1994, the theater reopened and by 2002, the vision of the Algonquin Arts Theater as both a vibrant cultural center for the community and as a powerful economic engine for the region was being realized. In 2009, the Drews and Marazitis sold the theater to the Board of Trustees of Algonquin Arts.

Fran’s life-long reverence for and championing of historic places next led her to front the campaign to save the Glimmer Glass Bridge, and was successful in helping get the bridge placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 25, 2008.

Family has always been important to Fran and she and Jack hosted many family reunions at the beach in Manasquan. In addition to her immediate family, she leaves behind 5 step-children, numerous nieces, nephews and cousins, and many, many friends, both near and far, the world over. Her flair and zest for life will be missed by all. Arrangements have been made privately by family. For those wishing to memorialize her, donations may be made to The Algonquin Arts Theater.