LEMPSTER — Capt. Albert Bania (Ret.), a career police officer in New Jersey and New Hampshire whose deployment unit participated in the presidential protection detail for George W. Bush’s 2005 inauguration, died in his home following a long illness. He was 70.
Bania served 31 years on the Secaucus N.J. Police Department, retiring with the rank of patrol captain in 2006. During his active career, he was twice elected vice president of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association during the 1990s and helped form the town’s SWAT unit and honor guard.
After 9/11, Bania joined the national Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) and, on Jan. 20, 2005, his RDF unit was assigned to Washington, D.C., to protect President Bush following his second inauguration.
Prior to becoming a cop, Bania served four years in the U.S. Navy as a communications specialist and saw action in Viet Nam during the 1968 TET offensive.
In 2006, Bania moved to Lempster, N.H., and almost immediately re-entered the uniformed service, first as a correction officer with the Sullivan County Jail and then as a police officer with the Veterans Administration in White River Junction, Vt., where he remained until his retirement in 2011.
Bania was married three times, most recently in 2004 to Cass Vanzi, a New York City and New Jersey journalist.
He is survived by his wife, Cass; three children, Milissa Wenzel and Angela Mauro, both of Middletown, Pa. (from his first marriage to Clair Mercer), and Marine SSgt. Maxine Ezell from his marriage to Diane Guttilla; two sisters, Margaret Schmidt of Ft. Myers Beach, Fla., and Joyce Acker of Kittanning, Pa.; and four grandchildren.
Services were held at the Newton-Bartlett Funeral Home, 42 Main St., Newport, N.H., on Sunday, March 18 with cremation to follow.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Wounded Warriors Project or the Guiding Eyes for the Blind.
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