Joseph A. Quinlan, Esq.
Former longtime Assistant District Attorney Commonwealth of Mass;
Joseph A. Quinlan, Esq., 61, of Swampscott, but always of Lowell, passed away peacefully Wednesday afternoon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after a brief illness.
A member of a well-known Lowell Highlands family, Joe was born in Lowell on April 6, 1958, a son of the late Thomas J. and the late Amalia (Serio) Quinlan.
He attended St. Margaret’s Grammar school and was a proud graduate of Lowell High School, Class of 1976. He went on to attend U/Mass Amherst where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in both Journalism and Political Science in 1980.
Joe later went on to receive his Juris Doctorate from Western New England Law School in 1988.
Professionally, he began his career as a reporter for the Associated Press. After law school, Joe became a prosecutor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where he served as an Assistant District Attorney for over 28 years in Hampden, Middlesex and Worcester Counties and the Northwestern District.
Following his retirement, Joe served the State of New Hampshire as a prosecutor for both Carroll and Hillsborough Counties.
Over the course of his career, Joe received several professional awards for his accomplishments. In 2008, he was presented the William C. O'Malley Award as Prosecutor of the Year for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He received an Appreciation Recognition at the 15th Annual Massachusetts Missing Children's Day in 2015 and another Appreciation Recognition from the Greenfield Police Department in 2000.
Joe was a member of several professional associations, among them, the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Bar Associations, the Mass Board of Bar Overseers Supreme Judicial Court and was a student and faculty member at the National District Attorney Association Trial Advocacy Program at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina. In addition, he was a faculty member for the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.
Among his many passions and interests, Joe was a photographer, specializing in black and white photography and for a time had a studio at Western Avenue in Lowell. He also enjoyed camping, gardening, running, and he ran twice in the Boston Marathon.
However, Joe’s greatest joy was being a father and spending time with his children.
Joe is survived by his three children Sally, Will and Teddy Quinlan of West Boylston; his four siblings: Amalia M. Quinlan and her husband Daniel Devine of Buffalo, NY, Thomas A. Quinlan of New Bedford, Helen Q. Littlefield and her husband Robert of Lowell and Marian R. Walsh and her husband Gary of Mount Dora, FL; his fiancée, Mary Anne Lenihan of Swampscott, many nieces, nephews, grand nieces, grand nephews and cousins, and his godmother Marie Serio of Tonawanda, NY.
Friends may call at the O’DONNELL FUNERAL HOME 276 PAWTUCKET ST. in LOWELL from 3 to 8 P.M. Tuesday. Relatives and friends are invited to attend his Funeral Mass to be celebrated Wednesday morning at the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH in LOWELL at 12 o’clock NOON followed by his burial at St. Patrick’s Cemetery. E-condolences/directions at www.odonnellfuneralhome.com. Those wishing may make contributions in his memory to the Jimmy Fund, c/o the Dana Farber Institute, 450 Brookline Ave. West, Boston, MA 02215. Arrangements by Funeral Director James F. O’Donnell, Jr. (978) 458-8768.
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