Joseph J. Pettinato, Jr.

Joseph J. Pettinato Jr. passed away Dec. 28, 2013, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson, N.J.

He had been airlifted there after a fall in his Upper Greenwood Lake home. He was 86 years old.

A graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School, Joe held a wide variety of public and private positions during his career as an attorney. He worked for the Cerebral Palsy Association. He was Assistant District Attorney for Queens County and attorney for former Assemblyman Dennis Butler.

He worked for the Life Insurance Institute and on the Insurance Committee of the State of New York, in which capacity he held hearings around the state.

In the private sector, he was attorney for the Richfield Oil, FMC, and American Electric Power companies. He had an extensive private practice.

Throughout his career, in private and public positions, Joe worked for equal treatment for minorities and the disadvantaged, equal access for the disabled, and inclusion in American society for immigrants.

In the energy sector, he presciently advocated against building nuclear plants in the years immediately preceding the disaster at Three Mile Island.

Joe is survived by his wife, Else Pettinato; his daughter Jill Buell and her husband, Fred, of Warwick; his son, Keith Pettinato and his wife, Nancy, of Warwick; his daughter Rosemarie Pettinato and her partner, Russell, of Miramar, Fla.; his grandchildren Alexander Buell and his wife, Samantha, Nicholas Buell, and Jake and Luke Pettinato; and his great-granddaughter, Violet Madison Buell.

Funeral arrangements were made by Richards Funeral Home in West Milford.