Michael D. Loprete was born in 1932 in Newark, New Jersey to parents Dimitri and Josephine Loprete (nee Crecca).  Michael grew up in South Orange where he was a keen student and passionate basketball player, later graduating from Princeton University in 1954 where he was a member of the Cannon Club and a point guard for the Varsity Basketball team. From 1954-1956 he served in the US Army, stationed primarily in West Germany with the Second Armored Division, and this experience influenced his lifelong passion for travel, languages, history, and literature. In 1959, Michael graduated from Columbia Law School and was a Recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in 1961.

During his career, Michael practiced law as a partner in a number of leading New Jersey law firms, where he specialized in corporate litigation of various types, including antitrust, intellectual property and environmental law.  From 1977 to 1981 he was in the Legal Department of AT&T, in New York and Washington, and played a lead role as attorney for AT&T in the government divestiture lawsuit against the Bell System.  Michael finished his career in private practice with Gibbons P.C. in 2003, and then served as General Counsel and Secretary of TeleManagement Forum, an international consortium of telecommunications and computer companies world wide, with offices in Morristown and London.  Michael was a member of the New Jersey, New York and District of Columbia Bar Associations and a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and of the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates.  Michael was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School.

While always a modest man, Michael never failed to impart strong values in those around him.  He was an avid reader and would typically ask his children not what they were up to, but rather what they were currently reading.  He believed that the key to life was balancing work, love, and play.  Work spoke for itself, but Michael enjoyed studying languages, reading great works of literature (later auditing a Dante class at Princeton in his later years), drinking wine and half beers with his family and friends, running, playing tennis, scuba diving, lifting weights, and even taking yoga and Pilates well into his eighties.  He was active as an event organizer and coach in the Special Olympics program in Monmouth County, and served as a governmental advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Michael leaves behind his beloved Nancy with whom he shared 62 years of marriage, his three sons and daughters-in-law Michael and Kim of Naples, Florida, Scott and Gina of Freehold, and Gregg and Sandy of Short Hills.  The biggest joys of his life were his grandchildren Ashley, Ryan, Anna, Matthew, and Katie.  The entire family are saddened by their “Pops’” passing, but also feel incredibly blessed to have spent so many years with Michael.  His spirit will endure with the passion in which he lived his life.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered Thursday, May 18th at 9:15 am in the Church of St. Catharine, 108 Middletown Road, Holmdel. Entombment will be private. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Michael’s memory to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, www.jdrf.org.

For messages of condolence, or to share a favorite memory of Michael, please visit his page of tribute at www.HolmdelFuneralHome.com