Thomas H. Green

Retired attorney, Navy veteran and father of six, Thomas H. Green, formerly of Florham Park, N.J. and recently of Avalon, N.J., passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family on July 9, 2023. He would have been 98 on July 22.

An intrepid storyteller, reader and opera buff, Thomas Green was born and raised in Newark; he graduated from West Side High School. He enrolled in college and then enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943, serving for three years, including in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. He earned an Asiatic-Pacific Area Campaign Medal, American Area Campaign Medal, and WWII Victory Medal.  In 1948 he graduated cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame. While working as an AFL-CIO stagehand in Newark and New York City, Tom Green attended Fordham Law School. He opened his first law office in Newark “in a phone booth,” the story goes, and continued the practice with an office in the old Welsh-Tuthill building on Ridgedale Road in Florham Park in 1953.

The Green family settled in Florham Park, where Tom was a communicant and a member of the Altar Society at Holy Family Church. He was a volunteer Block Captain with the Civil Defense Corps in the late fifties and sixties.  His speaking skills made him a sought-after emcee at events and parties, and he was appointed the official joke teller of the Avalon NJ Democrats, where he and Dorothy settled after his retirement.

The love of his life, Dorothy McKenna Green, predeceased him by eight years after 61 years of marriage. Together they traveled to Australia, China, England, India, Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand, and loved visiting St. John (USVI) in the winter.

He was predeceased by his sister Dorothy Conroy, and his grandson Patrick James.

He is survived by his children: Mary Ellen and her husband Scott Hettinger, Thomas and his wife Erin Mackesey, Brian and his wife Virginia, Kathleen and her husband Tom Rietzl, Emily and her husband Tom Basca, and Anne and her husband Gerry Beston. He cared deeply for his niece, Denise Conroy, and the many nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, from his extended family. His grandchildren brought him great joy and until the very end he could tell you what each one was up to: Marcella and Colin Hettinger and his wife, Logan; Brook, Justin and his wife, Suzanne;  Moira and Oona Mackesey-Green and Oona’s partner, Garth Olmanson; Brendan and Bridget Green; Robert and Thomas Rietzl and his wife Kristen; Grace and William Beston and his wife Dina; Josh and Matt Basca and his wife Jen; and great-grandchildren: Anthony, Adalyn, Myles, Parker, Connor, Claire, and Madelyn.

Visitation is at the Leonardis Memorial Home, 210 Ridgedale Ave. in Florham Park, on Wednesday, July 12th from 4 to 7p.m. Funeral on Thursday, July 13th, assembling at the funeral home at 9am, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at Holy Family Church in Florham Park at 10a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his name to World Central Kitchen by visiting: https://wck.org

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