Newark officials regretfully announce the passing of former Newark Police Chief Thomas C. O’Reilly, 84, who died Thursday morning at St. Barnabas Medical Center.
“He was my predecessor as Newark Police Chief,” said Ambrose, who took over from O’Reilly in 1999. “He was a guy with 43 years on the job and I was a guy with 13. He took time to show me the ropes. It goes without saying I learned a lot from him.”
According to officials, O’Reilly was a lifelong Newark resident, who joined the Newark Police Division before Christmas of 1956 and was assigned to the 2nd Precinct in February of 1957. But less than a month later, he was drafted into the army for two years and returned to duty. It was the only interruption in a career that spanned five decades, in which he rose through the ranks.
“The city is grateful for Chief O’Reilly’s service to our people and we share in his family’s grief,” said Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka.
“He was the epitome of a public a servant,” Ambrose said. “He will get a full inspector’s funeral, as he well deserves.”
Officials say O’Reilly served in three of the city’s precincts at the time when there were only five. In his time on the job he worked in almost every area of police work, from walking a beat to detective work, to the training and planning and research bureaus. He was appointed chief in 1992.
“The irony is that he always wanted to be a fireman,” Newark Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose said. “He told me that as a kid, he would go down to the firehouse at Astor and Sherman and look at Engine 10.”
O’Reilly’s nephew, Joseph Vesey, said that story was part of the family lore. “His parents were Irish immigrants and they first lived down on Sherman Avenue,” he said. “He loved hanging around the firehouse as a kid. He got to know all the guys and he wanted to be part of it. But the police department called first and his life took a different turn.”
Ambrose said to honor O’Reilly’s childhood ambition, a modern of successor of the old Engine 10 will be part of O’Reilly’s funeral procession on Tuesday, April 2nd. O’Reilly died of complications from colon cancer, his nephew said, less than a week before his 85th birthday. He is survived by several nieces and nephews.
“He was universally known as a good guy,” Vesey said. “There was no dissenting opinion about that.”
O’Reilly’s viewing will be held at the Jacob Holle Funeral Home, 2122 Millburn Avenue in Maplewood, on Sunday, March 31st from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and again on Monday, April 1st, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The funeral Mass will be held the following day at St. Mary’s Church at the Newark Abbey at 528 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Boulevard at 10:30 a.m.