Thomas William Greelish (December 31, 1939 – June 23, 1991) was an American lawyer who served as
United States Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...
Greelish was born on December 31, 1939, in Manhattan, New York City to Mildred and William Greelish. At the age of 7 he moved with his family to
Califon, New Jersey
Califon is a borough in Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 1,076,Dickinson College from 1957 to 1959 and then dropped out of college and worked at a brewery. He decided to return to school full-time, attending night classes and graduating from Rutgers–Newark in 1967 with a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
Seton Hall University School of Law
Seton Hall University School of Law is the law school of Seton Hall University, and is located in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Seton Hall Law is the only private law school in New Jersey, and, according to the ''U.S. News & World Report'' rankin ...
in 1971.
Greelish worked as law secretary to U.S. District Judge Frederick Bernard Lacey in 1971. Later that year, he began working in the office of the
United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey
The U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey is the chief federal law enforcement officer in New Jersey. On December 16, 2021, Philip R. Sellinger was sworn in as U.S. Attorney. The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has juris ...
. He was an assistant prosecutor under U.S. Attorney
Herbert Jay Stern
Herbert Jay Stern (born November 8, 1936) is a trial lawyer, with a national practice in civil and criminal litigation, as well as mediation and arbitration. Earlier in his career, Stern served as a United States district judge of the United S ...
, serving in that position until 1976.
In 1976 he joined the Morristown law firm of Schenck, Price, Smith & King. He became First Assistant
Attorney General of New Jersey
The attorney general of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state and oversees the Department of Law and Public Safety. The office is appointed by the governor of New Jersey, confirmed by the New Jersey Senate, and term limited ...
in 1982, and then first assistant U.S. Attorney in 1983 under W. Hunt Dumont.
From August 1985 to March 1987, Greelish was the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. During his tenure he prosecuted cases dealing with organized crime, white-collar fraud and drug trafficking. Among the cases he handled was the prosecution of
Susan Rosenberg
Susan Lisa Rosenberg (born October 5, 1955) is an American activist, writer, advocate for social justice and prisoners' rights. From the late 1970s into the mid-1980s, Rosenberg was active in the far-left terrorist May 19th Communist Organizati ...
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream ( embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathin ...
He was survived by his wife Peggy, daughter Sharon Greelish Cody, J.D. (Partnership Manager at Harbor Compliance), and son James P. Greelish, M.D.(Assistant Professor Columbia University, Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery Caromont Healthcare, Inc.). His other son William Robert Greelish died of Duchene's muscular dystrophy at the age of 25.