Army Vet, Civic Leader Dies at 91

William John Corley, 91, of Lincroft passed away peacefully on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 with Olive, his wife of 61 years, their eight children and numerous grandchildren and in-laws at his side. Born to Irish immigrant parents on Sept. 17, 1921, Bill resided in Staten Island, Colts Neck and Lincroft, where he built his own version of the American Dream.

Bill was a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Pacific Theater in World War II and reached the rank of sergeant major. The Seton Hall University graduate was a talented athlete who was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals. While his military service cut his baseball career short, he stayed an avid sports fan his entire life and enjoyed talking Notre Dame football with son Timothy and watching his grandchildren’s games.

In his decades on Staten Island, he was an entrepreneur and civic leader, serving as chief financial officer of Delmar Printing in New York and as president of the Richmond County Overall Development Corp. He played an integral part in the development of the Teleport in the borough. He was a Democratic political organizer who managed former U.S. Rep. Jack Murphy’s Congressional races and the Staten Island regional campaigns for U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential run and New York City Mayor Abraham Beame’s mayoral race.

However, Bill would tell you his greatest accomplishment was that of husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He delighted in the lives and achievements of the brood he and Olive created. They in turn adored the consummate gentleman and commanding figure of wisdom and strength that was their family patriarch.

He is survived by his wife, Olive, and their children and sons- and daughters-in-law: Mary Ann Colatuno of Apex, NC; John Corley and his wife, Joanne, of Holmdel, NJ; Juanita Smith and her husband, Daniel, of Apex, NC; Daniel Corley and his wife, Eileen, of New London, NH; Thomas Corley and his wife, Denise, of Freehold, NJ; Timothy Corley and his wife, Kellie, of Fredericksburg, VA; Joseph Corley and his wife, Mara, of Ridgefield, CT; and Kimberly Rentner and her husband, Michael, of Allentown, NJ. He is also survived by 27 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

He was predeceased by his father Thomas Corley of Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, and mother Mary Keating Corley of Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland; his brothers Raymond, Thomas, Vincent and Jack and a sister, Margaret.

He was fully committed to his Catholic faith and was a parishioner St. Leo’s Roman Catholic Church in Lincroft. Visitation will be held at John E. Day Funeral Home in Red Bank on Thursday, June 27 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. A funeral Mass will be heard at St. Leo’s on Friday, June 28 at 10 a.m. with interment to at 12:30 p.m. at Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown, NJ.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to theNational MS Society and Lupus Foundation of America.