Fred C. Galda

Fred C. Galda (April 12, 1918 – August 14, 1997) was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who served as a prosecutor in the Thomas Trantino murder case, as a judge on the New Jersey Superior Court who issued the state's first ruling acquitting a woman of murder based on a battered woman defense and served as mayor of Paramus, New Jersey.

Raised in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, where his hair earned him the nickname "Red", Galda was a star player on his high school football team and was the placekicker for the Michigan State Spartans football team, while he was in college.

Galda was elected as a Democrat as mayor of Paramus in 1952, after nearly two decades of Republican control. He took an active role as mayor, and was known to ride garbage trucks after borough residents complained about trash pickup and to ride on snowplows during bad storms. Galda was mayor in September 1958 when the borough fully imposed its own blue laws that restricted the opening of stores on Sundays, as part of an effort to deal with massive traffic congestion on Route 4 and Route 17, Galda was re-elected six times and served as mayor until 1964, overseeing the building boom and shopping center developments that transformed Paramus from a quiet farming community to a center of commerce.

When incumbent Walter H. Jones (New Jersey politician) did not seek re-election to run for the 1961 Republican nomination for Governor, Galda became the Democratic candidate for the open State Senate seat. He lost to Republican Assemblyman Pierce H. Deamer, Jr., 160,125 (55.8%) to 124,492 (43.4%).

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