Brendan Byrne

Byrne was born and raised in West Orange, New Jersey.[6] He was the fourth child among five children of ethnic Irish American Catholic parents Francis A. Byrne (1886–1974), a local public safety commissioner[7] and Genevieve Brennan Byrne (1888–1969).[8]

In 1942, Byrne graduated from West Orange High School, where he had served as both the president of the debate club and senior class president.[9] He briefly enrolled at Seton Hall University, only to leave in March the following year to join the U.S. Army.[8] During World War II, Byrne served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air Medals.[9] By the time of his discharge from active service in 1945, he had achieved the rank of lieutenant.[9]

After the war, Byrne attended Princeton University for two years, where he studied in the School of Public and International Affairs.[1] Due to the war, he spent only two years on campus, finishing his undergraduate thesis while enrolled at Harvard Law School.[1] He graduated from Princeton in 1949 after completing a 95-page long senior thesis titled "Proportional Representation in Municipal Government", and went on to obtain his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1951.[9][10]

Prior to entering public service, Byrne worked as a private attorney, first for the Newark law firm of John W. McGeehan, Jr., and later for the East Orange firm of Teltser and Greenberg.[11]

In October 1955, Byrne was appointed an assistant counsel to Governor Robert B. Meyner.[12] The following year he became the Governor's acting executive secretary.[1] In 1958, Byrne was appointed the deputy attorney general responsible for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.[12] The following year, Governor Meyner appointed him as the Essex County Prosecutor.[12] Governor Hughes reappointed Byrne to this same office in 1964 following the end of his first five-year term.[9] From 1968 to 1970, Byrne served as the president of the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners.[13]

In 1970, Byrne was appointed by Governor William T. Cahill to the Superior Court.[8] He served as the assignment judge for Morris, Sussex, and Warren Counties starting in 1972.[8] In April 1973, Byrne resigned from the Superior court to run for governor.[9]

Byrne in 2007

After leaving office in 1982, Governor Byrne became a senior partner at Carella, Byrne, Bain, Gilfillan, Cecchi, Stewart & Olstein in Roseland, New Jersey (now Carella, Byrne, Cecchi, Olstein, Brody and Agnello, P.C.).[22] Additionally, Byrne and his successor as governor, Thomas Kean, co-wrote a weekly column in The Star-Ledger, containing their "dialogue" on state and national public affairs and politics.[9] He has also taught courses at Princeton University and Rutgers University.[22]

In 2014, Donald Linky, Byrne's former chief counsel, published a biography of the former governor called New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne: The Man Who Couldn't Be Bought.[18][23]

Despite not supporting all of his policies, Byrne said that Governor Chris Christie should run for president in 2016, calling Christie "the best candidate that the Republicans have" and complimented his "charm".[18]

On June 27, 1953, he married Jean Featherly,[9] with whom he had seven children.[26] Jean and Brendan Byrne divorced amicably in 1993, and both Byrne and his wife stated that they had "grown apart". Byrne married his second wife, Ruth Zinn, who was also divorced, in 1994.[9][27] Jean Byrne died in 2015 of babesiosis, aged 88.[26]

Byrne died on January 4, 2018, at his home in Livingston, New Jersey, of a lung infection at the age of 93.[2][3][8][13]

His funeral was held on January 8 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.[28] Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, then-Governor Chris Christie and Governor-elect Phil Murphy, former Governors Thomas Kean, Donald DiFrancesco, Jim McGreevey, Richard Codey and Jon Corzine and U. S. Representative Bill Pascrell were in attendance.[29] Byrne's remains were cremated and his ashes were spread in Hudson County and in the Pine Barrens.[28]

The Brendan T. Byrne State Forest

In 2006, Rutgers University's Center on the American Governor of the Eagleton Institute of Politics established the Brendan T. Byrne Archive, an online database containing various resources from the Byrne administration, including original documents and video interviews with Brendan Byrne and members of his administration.[30]

The Brendan T. Byrne State Forest (formerly Lebanon State Forest) is named for him.[8] The Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford was also named for him, although it was renamed the Continental Airlines Arena in 1996.[31]

Byrne's son, Tom Byrne, was the New Jersey Democratic State Committee chair in the 1990s and was a prospective candidate for the U.S. Senate race in 2000, before withdrawing in favor of eventual winner Jon Corzine, who later became governor.[1]

In 2011, Byrne was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame along with Queen Latifah, John Travolta, and ten others.[5]

The Man Who Couldn't Be Bought is a biography of Byrne published in 2015.[32]

• New Jersey Governor Brendan Thomas Byrne, National Governors Association
• Rutgers Program on the Governor, the Brendan Byrne Archive