Harrison Mayor Raymond McDonough died today after suffering a massive heart attack at his Town Hall office.

McDonough's friends and family are in shock by his sudden death, which comes just weeks after his sister died. His wife, Connie, answered the phone this afternoon at the couple's Jersey Street home but declined to comment.

McDonough, who turned 65 on Feb. 2, met with town officials this morning and they then went to lunch, according to Paul Swibinski, founder of Vision Media, a media and consulting firm that has the pulse of the Hudson County Democratic Party.

The mayor went back to his Town Hall office and collapsed, said Swibinski. Town Hall was open today, despite the Lincoln birthday holiday, but was closed after McDonough's death.

"Today we lost the best mayor," Councilman Victor Villalta said. "Today Harrison is crying. He gave his life for the town of Harrison."

A town worker, Jim Geddes, had tears in his eyes as he put the American flag in front of Town Hall at half staff this afternoon.

"He was a good guy," said Geddes, who has worked for the Department of Public Works for 17 years. "He gave me a job."

After the town offices were closed, Geddes decided to pay tribute to McDonough by lowering the flag.

Van Golemis, co-owner of the Tops Diner in Harrison, was "stunned" when he heard the news.

"I can't believed this happened," said Golemis, 38, who added that McDonough was a "6-day-a-week" customer.

Golemis said it wasn't strange to see McDonough at the diner at 5:30 in the morning.

"He lived and breathed Harrison," Golemis said. "All he cared about was making Harrison better. ... He worked all the time."

A lifelong Harrison resident, McDonough was a star basketball player at Essex Catholic High School.

He was first elected mayor in 1995 after serving for 17 years on the Town Council. He was following in the footsteps of his father, who was a Harrison alderman and Hudson County freeholder. John V. Kenny, one-time mayor of Jersey City, was his godfather, he told The Jersey Journal in 1999.

Politics is "in my blood," he said then.

A plumber, McDonough was retired from the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission.

The mayor led the town through a long-stalled redevelopment process that he said would return some luster to Harrison, which had been home to numerous industrial giants in the early 20th Century.

"When I first became mayor, it was very clear that this town had to change to survive in the 21st century," McDonough said in 2004 when he was sworn in to his third term. "There were some who wanted Harrison to go back to its glory days as an industrial center, but it soon become apparent that going back was not an option - going forward was the only way to survive and prosper."

State Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, today called McDonough "a great friend" to many in Hudson County.

"He always stood up for the middle class and working men and women and had a great deal of integrity and compassion," Prieto said. "He will be greatly missed and I would like to extend my deepest condolences to his family and the town of Harrison."

A Democrat, McDonough recently made headlines by supporting Republican Gov. Chris Christie for re-election. He continued to support him after news of the so-called Bridgegate scandal broke.

McDonough told The Jersey Journal last month that he reached out to Christie's office before endorsing him last January, not the other way around. And he expressed doubt Christie would even consider strong-arming him to get his support.

"What? For 3,000 votes?" McDonough said.

The mayor said he opted to support Christie over Buono because Christie's administration came through on promises to build a new PATH station in Harrison.

John Golemis, also a co-owner of Tops Diner, said McDonough and "his wife are amazing people." Golemis added that the mayor was "such a warm gentleman."

Kearny Mayor Al Santos said McDonough "is going to be missed and it is a shock for all of us. To the people of Harrison, our condolences. I hope their leadership will continue with the same complete devotion to the people that the mayor had."

On the town website, McDonough pledged to be a mayor of the people and noted the changing times in the Passaic River town.

"I have over 30 years of experience with this great town and as mayor I pledge to uphold the law, make the quality of life for our residents the best that it can be, take care of our seniors and as always will continue to have an 'open door' policy for you to voice your concerns and ideas,'' he wrote. "We will continue to move forward with the town’s development in the 21st century."