William T. Kelleher of Somerville, NJ, died at the age of 98 on January 8, 2023. Bill was born in Somerville on July 14, 1924 and attended Somerville public schools through middle school until his family moved to Hastings on Hudson, NY, moved. He received his high school diploma from the Dwight School and received employment at the US Naval Academy. After graduating from Annapolis, he served active duty in the US Navy from 1946 to 1949 as a lieutenant aboard the heavy cruisers Macon and Albany and the light cruiser Portsmouth. After being decommissioned in the post-war Navy, he entered Rutgers Law School. While in law school, he was recalled to active duty by the Navy to serve in the Korean conflict and was appointed instructor at the Navy Officer’s Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, from 1952 to 1953. He then earned his law degree and was admitted to the NJ Bar in 1954. Bill practiced law for decades in the Somerville area at the law firm of Allgair, King and Kelleher, founded by his father-in-law, Judge George W. Allgair, and retired from the law firm of Kelleher and Moore at age 49 later in 2003. He also served as a judge of the Somerville Municipal Court from 1967 to 1980. Bill’s involvement in his community extended to serving on the board of Somerset Medical Center (following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Dr Thomas Flynn, one of the nine founding physicians of that facility) for more than thirty years. He was also a director of Raritan Savings Bank and State Bank of Raritan Valley. In 1965 he was one of the founders of Somerset Car Wash, Inc. (now Bridgewater Nissan) and remained an officer of that company until his death. In 1950, Bill married “my beautiful bride” Mary T. Allgair and they enjoyed a marriage of 71 years until her death on March 29, 2022. Bill had a sociable spirit and easy charm, and hosted many memorable poolside “luaus.” with friends and family at her Somerville home. His warmth and self-deprecating sense of humor were contagious, and through tales of his naval adventures, world travels with Mary, or simply telling a bit of Somerville history from his childhood, he was able to delight those around him. He was also a devout Catholic and was a parishioner at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Somerville. Bill is deceased by his parents John and Agnes Kelleher and his sister Dorothy Kelleher. He is survived by his son William T. Kelleher, Jr. and his wife Heidi, his son John A. Kelleher and his wife Jane, his granddaughter Margaret Kelleher and her husband Gavin Millard, his granddaughter Ellis Kelleher and her husband Eamonn Quinn, his great-grandchildren Declan and Gideon, his brother-in-law and wife Drs. George and Janet Allgair and his niece and nephew Suzanne Allgair (husband Stan Erdreich) and George Allgair III (wife Luceli), his great-nieces and family friends. The family would like to express their appreciation to the dedicated staff at Laurel Circle, Atlantic Home Health Care and Serenity Hospice for the care they provided to Bill in the final years of his life. The visit will take place on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the Cusick Funeral Home, 80 Mountain Avenue, Somerville. A Christian funeral service will follow at 11:00 am at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 35 Mountain Avenue, Somerville. Burial will be in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Somerville. Guests are asked to respect the mask and social distancing rules for the funeral. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations in Bill’s memory to The Church of The Immaculate Conception, 35 Mountain Avenue, Somerville, NJ 08876 or The Somerset Health Care Foundation, 110 Rehill Avenue, Somerville, NJ 08876.
Posted January 14, 2023
Published in Courier News
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