John Cooley

John Cooley was a detective in the New York Police Department’s 19th Precinct, which serves the Upper East Side, for 20 years, retiring to go to work for another 20 years in fire safety and security. Since childhood he called Montauk a second home.

Mr. Cooley died of cardiac arrest on Oct. 4, his family said. He was 74. 

Born in Queens on March 7, 1944, to Leo Cooley and the former Alice Denning, he grew up in Flushing and was introduced to Montauk in the 1950s, when his family spent summers at the Ditch Plain trailer park. He later bought a house in the neighborhood.

After graduating from Holy Cross High School in Flushing, he attended the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and served in the Coast Guard.

In 1975, Mr. Cooley married Catherine O’Connell, who survives. The couple spent winters in Flushing and summers in Montauk, where he was a member of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church. 

In addition to his wife, he is survived by three siblings, Mary Kubler of Queens, Joseph Cooley of Urbandale, Iowa, and Frisco, N.C., and Philip Cooley of Queens and Montauk. Another brother, Leo Cooley, died before him.

A funeral Mass was said on Oct. 9 at St. Andrew Avellino Catholic Church in Flushing, followed by burial at Mount St. Mary Cemetery in Queens