Thomas Phelan, Justice and O’side resident, dies at 69

Lifetime Oceanside Resident and Nassau Supreme Court Justice Thomas P. Phelan died on Feb. 12 at Mercy Medical Center after a 10-month battle with cancer. He was 69.

Born in Brooklyn, Phelan moved to Oceanside when he was three years old. Phelan was involved in many local organizations, including the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, where he was President from 1989 to 1990. He also founded the Irish Monument Committee, which raised money to restore the Irish Monument in Mineola, which commentates the 1916 Easter Uprising against British rule.

Phelan received a B.A. from Stony Brook University and a J.D. from New York Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1971 and worked as a Nassau County assistant district attorney until 1974. For the next decade he worked as a law secretary for a county court judge and, from 1984 to 1991, he was in private practice.

Phelan was elected to the Nassau District Court bench in 1991 and was elected to the Supreme Court in 1996 as a Republican. He was re-elected in 2010. Towards the end of his career, Phelan focused on cases that involved the guardianship of incapacitated people, including the elderly.

He is survived by his daughters, Meredith Brown, Bridget Hine and Kesley Phelan, a son, Thomas Phelan and six grandchildren. His wife, Noreen, died in 2013.

A funeral Mass was held on Feb. 23 at St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church. The family asks that flowers be sent to Towers Funeral Home. Or donations may be made “in Memory of Judge Phelan” to the Irish Monument Committee, c/o Joseph Hyland, Treasurer, 254 Nassau Blvd., Garden City, NY 11530.