Michael D. Loprete was born in 1932 in Newark to parents Dimitri and Josephine Loprete née 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 to 1956 he served in the U.S. 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 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 worldwide, with offices in Morristown and London.
Michael was a member of the New Jersey, New York and District of Columbia Bar Associations, 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 to 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 (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 80s. 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, and 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 is saddened by “Pops’” passing, but also feels 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 was offered May 18 at Church of St. Catharine, Holmdel. Entombment was private.
For messages of condolence, or to share a favorite memory of Michael, please visit his tribute page at holmdelfuneralhome.com.
The article originally appeared in the May 25 – 31, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
