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Parade attorney is now parade leader

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Gleason, a Manhattan-born attorney was chosen last week as the Grand Marshal for the 2004 parade which will step off on Wednesday, March 17.
Gleason, who is married to Catherine Fahey, is the son of Thomas W. “Teddy” Gleason, the legendary longshoremen’s union leader who was grand marshal of the parade in 1984.
“I never expected it,” said Gleason in a phone interview Tuesday.
“I was amazed when I got the call from (parade chairman) John Dunleavy and asked to come to a parade committee meeting,” Gleason said.
“They had a vote and voted me in,” he added.
Gleason, who is 79, said that he had first marched in the New York parade when he was about 13-years-old.
His march up Fifth Avenue less than three months from now will him a little longer, not least because the World War Two Marine veteran lost a leg in the vicious fighting against the Japanese on the island of Saipan.
Gleason, who founded the law firm of Gleason and Mathews, takes over as grand marshal from Ford Motor Company Executive James O’Connor.
Gleason’s Irish roots are in counties Tipperary and Tyrone.
He served with the U.S. Marines in the Marshall Islands campaign as well as on the Japanese island of Saipan.
After the war, Gleason went to college and graduated from Manhattan College and St. John’s Law School.
In his law practice, Gleason has handled a number of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court but in recent years he rose to particular prominence in court battles involving the parade and groups such as the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization.
Gleason is a founding member of the Knights of St. Patrick and was a recipient of Man of the Year honors from the Friends of Fianna Fail.
He was honored this week at a Knights event by attended by, among others, Irish consul general Eugene Hutchinson and his wife Adele, Kevin Quill, John Leahy, John Fitzsimons, Garrett Cronin, Joe Quinlivan and John Newe.
Gleason will be able to bring along a crowd of his own on St. Patrick’s Day. He and his wife have seven daughters, two sons and eight grandchildren.

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