Obituary of Stanley E. Rutkowski

Stanley E. Rutkowski, Sr., a retired Supervisory Judge of Workers Compensation, and former Prosecutor of Mercer County died on September 2 at home. He was 92 years old. Born in Trenton and educated at St. Hedwigs and public schools he lived in Lawrenceville for 50 years. His pre-law education was at Temple University prior to WWII. Also prior to his entry into the military and after Pearl Harbor, he served in the United States Attorney's Office as supervisor of enemy alien travel and was responsible for the formal request for the issuance of Presidential warrants for the arrest of aliens accused by the FBI. Upon his return from the war he completed his legal training at Rutgers University Law School from January 1946 to January 1948, where he and many other returning veterans completed a three year law course in two years foregoing any vacation or other holidays. He was admitted to the Bar in November 1948. He subsequently, in 1956, took the then required counselor courses at Rutgers University and was certified as a counselor at law by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1958. He took advanced graduate courses in connection with his employment at Northwestern University, New York University Medical School and Colby College and attended numerous seminars. During WWII he served as a Special Agent in the elite U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps and was assigned to the First Cavalry Division in the South Pacific participating first in the Bismarck Archipelago campaign. In the static period after the Admiralties, in the archipelago, he was temporarily assigned for two months to the 158th Bushmaster Regiment where he took part in the landing and subsequent securing of the island of Noemfoer in the Dutch East Indies, where in addition to his Army Intelligence duties, he also performed combat intelligence, searching enemy dead and headquarters; retrieving Japanese documents and interrogating prisoners. A report submitted by Rutkowski, of his activities in Noemfoer, is contained in the book entitled ""Spy Catchers"" by Duval Edwards. Returning to the First Cavalry he landed among the first waves in the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines and later into the invasion of Luzon, where the First Cavalry was the first Army unit to enter into Manila. In Manila he operated in civilian clothes, cultivating contacts and searching for and arresting Japanese collaborators. Among his acquaintances in Luzon in connection with his assignments was Senator Elpidio Quirino, his brother Anthony Quirino, the Philippine Attorney General and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Ramon Ozaeta. Senator Quirino later became President of the Philippines and after the war corresponded with Rutkowski. He was introduced by Quirino to General Carlos Romulo, who later became ambassador to the United Nations. He was assigned in August 1945 to the 5th Marine Amphibious Corps for the invasion of Japan, but the war ended and on that day his assignment was changed and he was assigned to a unit which was leaving immediately to go to Japan to capture their Prime Minister Tojo. But, because of the number of his accumulated overseas points, he was ordered to a replacement depot where he spent about two months with Admiral Halsey's nephew awaiting transportation home. He was awarded a number of medals and citations. After law school he was associated for several years with the law firm of Thorn, Lord and Richard J. Hughes, later Governor and Chief Justice of New Jersey, in Trenton and Newark, NJ. He received an appointment in 1948 in the Truman administration as an Assistant United States Attorney for New Jersey. During his tenure in that position he headed a task force of 35 agents into a successful investigation of income tax violators in Atlantic City. He was admitted to the United States 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, where he successfully argued several cases; some of which came out of the Atlantic City investigation. At the request of Robert Meyner he resigned this position in 1953 and took an active part in the campaign which elected Meyner as Governor, and was appointed a Deputy Attorney General on the staff of Attorney General Grover C. Richman, Jr. He was named by Richman as the first Chief of the newly established Criminal Division and worked as an acting prosecutor in seven of New Jersey's counties. In Elizabeth he investigated the Police Department. In Camden he investigated alleged wire tapping by the incumbent prosecutor. He, along with John Thevos, another Deputy, was assigned as co-counsel to General Norman Schwartzkopf (the father of: ""Storming Norman"") into the investigation of the activities of former Governor Harold Hoffman, which revealed the misuse of funds of the Unemployment Division by the former governor, who headed the Division. He also investigated voter frauds in Cape May and Ocean counties. During this period he was admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States, where one of his cases relating to voter fraud had been appealed, but was denied certorari. In March 1957 Governor Meyner appointed him as Prosecutor of mercer County where he served until 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson nominated him as Comptroller of U.S. Customs for a territory extending from Baltimore, Maryland to Ste. Saulte Marie in Michigan. As Prosecutor he was requested by Attorney General Richman to look into the activities of New Jersey mafia members in the Appalachian, N.Y. meeting that took place with mafia members from various parts of the United States. After his term as Comptroller expired automatically by the election of Richard Nixon as president, he received an appointment by Governor Richard J. Hughes as a Judge in the Workers Compensation Court and later served as Supervising Judge in New Brunswick, Freehold and Trenton vicinages. He retired in 1983. He was elected to the New Jersey Democratic State Committee in 1948, where he and representatives of six other counties successfully ended the Frank Hague control of New Jersey State Committee. He served as the President of the Mercer County young Democrats from 1948 to 1950 and helped to reorganize Young Democrat Clubs in seven other counties of New Jersey. He was the second President of the Polish American Club of Central New Jersey and was a past member of the Trenton Polish American Democratic Club; Polish Falcons #59 the Top Road Golf Club; and at the time of his death was a Regional Vice President of the National Counter Intelligence Corps; He was a former member of the American Judicature Society, the Mercer County Bar Association; the Federal Bar Association and New Jersey Bar Association. He was one of the organizers of the New Jersey Prosecutors Association, acting as secretary for several years. He was a member of the Criminal Justice Advisory Commission of the Mercer County Community College from June 1971 to December 1978. In 1957 he was elected by delegates from New Jersey, New York and Connectucut as the Grand Marshal of the Pulaski Day parade and in October 1957 led over 100,000 marchers in the march up Fifth Avenue in New York City. He was a life member of North Trenton American Legion Post 458; and a charter and life member of Lawrence Post 3022 Veterans of Foreign Wars. He was a long time member of the church of St. Ann and served as a Saturday night usher for a number of years. He was the son of the late Tadeusz and Helen Tykarski Rutkowski and was also predeceased by his brothers Lt. Victor S. Rutkowski (MIA WWII), Ted Rutkowski, Edward Rutkowski; and sisters Irene Rutkowski and Helen C. Roberts. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Clare Czarnecki Rutkowski and his daughter Susan and her husband Daniel Langhirt, his son Stanley E. (Lee) Rutkowski Jr. and four grandchildren, Charles R. Fredrickson, Jr. and Sarah Cramer and Jamie Lee Rutkowski and Joshua Rutkowski and his brother Lt. Comdr. Richard S. Rutkowski USN Ret. and his wife, Julia M., and a number of nieces, nephews and cousins. His funeral will be held on Saturday at 9 AM from Poulson & Van Hise Funeral Directors, 650 Lawrence Rd. Lawrenceville. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 AM at the Church of St. Ann, Lawrenceville . Burial will follow in St. Hedwig Cemetery, Ewing. Friends may call on Friday from 5 to 8 PM at the funeral home. American Legion Post 458 will conduct services at 7 PM and V.F.W. Post 3022 will conduct services at 6:30 PM Memorial contributions may be made to American Legion Post 458, 1438 Brunswick Ave., P.O. Box 5065, Trenton, NJ 08638 Please visit www.poulsonvanhise.com for directions or to leave a condolence for the family.