Officers' Bios

Duane Beers is President of the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce.
Duane Beers assumed the Chamber's presidency in April 2004. He is the owner of Highland Park Automotive, 1150 Raritan Ave. , Highland Park . Phone: 732-985-1451. E-mail: Main Street Highland Park Promotion Committee.

With the resignation in June 2005 of immediate past president Laura Levitt, proprietor of the Corner Confectionary, the office of the First Vice-President is vacant

Walter H. Deutsch II is Treasurer of the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce.
Walter H. Deutsch II is vice president and financial service manager of Unity Bank , 104 Raritan Ave. , Highland Park .

Walter has been in the banking industry for 25 years, with 20 of those in the Highland Park community. Like all Chamber members, he is sincerely interested in the success of the Highland Park business community and in finding ways in which the many organizations in the borough can work together to help the community grow.

Walter currently serves on the alumni board and the board of trustees of the Middlesex County Regional Chamber of Commerce and the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, which benefits breast cancer research. In addition, he is a past president of The Union Club of New Brunswick.

He has been a member of the Hillsborough Area Kiwanis and done fund-raising for the State Theatre of New Brunswick . Walter is also a former president of the Highland Park Chamber.

Walter's greatest joy is seeing success achieved in children of all ages, from 1 to 100, whether academic, athletic or artistic.

A graduate of Rutgers Preparatory School , he received his B.A. in Math (Statistics) from Lawrence University , Appleton, Wisc.

The Deutsch family resides in Somerset , N.J.

Larry B. Kling is Secretary and Webmaster
A writer, editor and inveterate runner, Larry B. Kling is secretary and webmaster of the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce. Larry has resided in Highland Park since 1990. He has worked in corporate communications and journalism, with publication credits ranging from The Home News (when it was still in the Boyd family) to The Philadelphia Inquirer to the Journal of Information and Image Management. Today he works as editorial manager of REA, Inc. , a Piscataway , N.J.-based publisher of educational books and software.

Larry holds a B.A. in political science from Rutgers College , New Brunswick , N.J. He has been recognized by the New York Business Resource Center of the Volunteer Urban Consulting Group, Inc., for providing marketing and public relations consulting for a New York City small business. He has also been honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the New York chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Larry also serves as vice chair of the Main Street Highland Park Promotion Committee.