Man Leaves Money for Substance Abuse Prevention

A former New Jersey man who had run afoul of the local police for underage drinking left $60,000 in his will to help the town fight alcohol and substance abuse.

Kevin M. Coughlin was 51 when he died in Florida in a 2007 diving accident. But he's being remembered in Chatham Borough, N.J., this week after the borough approved a $60,000 bequeath from Coughlin's will. Half will go to the police department and the other half to the borough for alcohol and substance abuse prevention programs.

Coughlin said the police department's tough love in dealing with him as a youth was "a big part of his becoming a recovered addict," Chatham Mayor V. Nelson Vaughn told the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.

The police will spend the money on its D.A.R.E. program; part of the remainder will go to the Municipal Alliance, which the Star-Ledger said was a community group that works with youth to promote substance-free activities.