As state director, he raises all the money necessary to run the program and also oversees its myriad of details. He manages and attends the 26 to 30 local beauty pageants held throughout the state; he sets up more than 100 appearances for Miss New Jersey during her reign, and - along with his wife - he accompanies the beauty queen to each one.
A big job, but Zauber insists the rewards of his avocation are even more numerous than its duties. He lists both the satisfaction of helping hundreds of young women receive scholarships and the close lasting friendships he and his wife develop with the ex-beauty queens as among the greatest.
But another, he quickly adds, is the "pure glitz" of the job.
"It's the biggest ego trip that an average person could ever have," says Zauber, owner of a Haddonfield-based collection agency, ACE Service Agency Inc. "Where else could I, an average person, have the experiences I've had, meet the people I've met and go the places I've gone?"
In addition to the local pageants, Zauber is often a judge at other state pageants and is the president-elect of the National Association of Miss America State Pageants. But the heart of the job, the Cherry Hill resident says, is getting to know each Miss New Jersey and watching her evolve into a more self-confident woman during her yearlong reign.
His latest odyssey with Miss New Jersey 1988-89 began July 2 when Tricia Lynne Bowman, 19, of Ocean City, was crowned at Cherry Hill High School East. Although her appearance at the Camden County 4-H Fair in Blackwood two weeks ago was only the second in her reign, Bowman and the Zaubers seemed to be the best of friends.
"Already I don't know what I'd do without Uncle Nate," said Bowman, a blue-eyed redhead. "He's done everything for me and taken all the pressure of the details off me."
