Frank M. Lario Jr., 79, New Jersey judge

In 2003, the Rutgers-Camden School of Law Alumni Association gave New Jersey Superior Court Judge Frank M. Lario Jr. its distinguished service award.

In an Inquirer interview at the time, Judge Lario said that his first legal classes were not at Rutgers but at Harvard Law School, where he completed only one semester.

Judge Lario told the interviewer "he wasn't comfortable with the school," because he felt "as though he didn't belong."

So he enrolled at Rutgers-Camden and, because his graduating class of 1962 had only nine students, he told The Inquirer, "we were practically tutored."

"I went to this school only to bide my time," he said, "and I found my home."

On Wednesday, Oct. 26, Frank M. Lario Jr., 79, of Haddonfield, a New Jersey Superior Court judge from 1993 to 2003, died of cancer at home.

Until he retired a year later, in 2004, Judge Lario was a member of the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division.

Honors came early. While in private practice, son Michael said, his father was a member of the character and fitness committee of the New Jersey Supreme Court, from the 1970s to 1993. Judge Lario was president of the Camden County Bar Association in 1984-85, after earning its Peter J. Devine Jr. Award in 1981. He won it again in 1994.

And he was a former delegate to the General Council of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

For the Rutgers Law School Alumni Association, he was a former chancellor, scholarship committee chairman, and board of trustees member.

Born in Philadelphia, Judge Lario graduated from St. Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia, earned a bachelor's magna cum laude at Georgetown University in 1959 and graduated cum laude in 1962 at the Rutgers School of Law in Camden.

After serving a New Jersey Supreme Court clerkship in 1962-63, he worked in the practice of his father, Frank M. Lario Sr., until 1973, when they opened a legal practice with Joseph Nardi Jr.

While there, until joining the Superior Court, Frank M. Lario Jr. was at times a municipal judge in Audubon Park, Bellmawr, Magnolia, and Woodlynne.

And he was a former secretary and president of the Camden County Municipal Judges Conference. "He was an amazing man," his son said.

"He was extremely thoughtful and touched so many people on so many levels."

Patricia Nallen, his secretary for 37 years, interrupted a walk to recall that "I never heard anyone utter a bad word about him."

Frank M. Lario Jr. was "brilliant, a legal scholar," Nallen said, and "treated everyone equally."

Besides his son Michael, Judge Lario is survived by his wife, Kathleen; son Frank; daughter Kathleen Alessandrini; a sister; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

A visitation was set from 7 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at the Healey Funeral Home, 9 White Horse Pike, Haddon Heights, before an 11:30 a.m. Funeral Mass at Christ the King Church, 200 Windsor Ave., Haddonfield, with interment in Calvary Cemetery, Cherry Hill.

Donations may be sent to Development Office, St. Joseph's Prep, 1733 Girard Ave., Philadelphia 19130. Condolences may be offered to the family at www.healeyfuneralhomes.com.