Terrence P. Farley, 72, a founding member of the  Annual Diocesan Celebration of Law Enforcement – also known as the Blue Mass -- died Oct. 31 in his home in Seaside Park surrounded by his family.

A member of St. Catharine of Siena Parish, Seaside Park, where he served as an usher, Farley was remembered by fellow members of the Blue Mass Committee as working hard to promote the event as its co-chairman for 16 years.

They spoke not only of his outstanding efforts to combat drug addiction and protect young people from its blight, but of Farley’s respect and appreciation for men and women of the law enforcement community.

Each spoke of his enjoyment as he greeted hundreds of officers from around New Jersey and the metropolitan area each year as they arrived at Trenton’s St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral to attend the Blue Mass.

Retired Lt. Howard Allaire of the Trenton Police Department, who chairs the Blue Mass committee,  remembered Farley as a “unique personality who had a distinguished career, having been a one-time director of criminal justice for the State of New Jersey.”

Allaire said Farley’s keen sense of humor would be missed at Blue Mass meetings throughout the year. “Most  people would remember Terry as the person in the middle of the aisle in the front of the Cathedral as he welcomed our dignitaries.”

“Terry loved the Blue Mass and honoring members of law enforcement,” said  Msgr. Philip Lowery, pastor of St. James Parish, Red Bank, and a State Police Chaplain, had served on the Blue Mass committee along with Farley since its founding.

Msgr. Lowery described Farley as a consummate law enforcement professional himself, who “placed the war on drugs and protection of youth as primary concerns.” Describing Farley as a man of faith, Msgr. Lowery said Farley was “thrilled every year at the Blue Mass to stand there and see so many officers coming to Communion.”

Born and raised in Jersey City, Farley attended both Parsons College and Ursinus College and received his law degree from Rutgers School of Law. He became a partner in the law firm of Novins, Novins, Grossman and Farley in 1969, and was appointed as first assistant prosecutor for Ocean County under James Holzapfel.

He went on to serve as the director of the National Drug Prosecution Center in Alexandria, Va., and was named director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice under Governor Christie Todd Whitman. He later returned to the Ocean County Prosecutors Office where he served as the director of the Ocean County Narcotics Strike Force until his retirement in 2010.