John "Jack" McInerney

John K. "Jack" McInerney
Age 75
San Mateo County
Born in San Francisco. Died peacefully in Palo Alto, surrounded by family. He was the oldest of four children born to Dolores and John J. McInerney. He rarely answered to the name John, preferring the nickname "Jack."
Jack spent his early summers on the Russian River in Sonoma County and loved to spend time at the family cabin on the River until it was sold in 2013. He was a fabulous chef, learning to cook as a young man at the hand of his Italian grandmother Anna. While it would stump the rest of us, he could identify flavors when dining out, the product of being taught by her to identify herbs and spices only by smell, while blindfolded.
He was educated at St. Joseph's Military Academy, Bellarmine and Carlmont High Schools, University of San Francisco and Golden Gate Law School, earning a LLB in 1966.
After two years as a prosecutor at the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office and time in private practice with Ragan & McGuire, he took a job in 1971 at the San Mateo County Bar Association as the Assistant Administrator of its Private Defender Program. In 1980, he was promoted to Administrator of the Private Defender Program, and three years later took on the additional position of Executive Director of the Bar Association. As Administrator for over twenty years, he excelled at the stressful work of overseeing a panel of 130+ criminal defense attorneys that handled all of the indigent criminal defense work in the County and he skillfully negotiated several long-term contracts with the County, consistently demonstrating the Bar Association's programs were efficient and cost-effective, and resulting in better representation of those who could not afford their own counsel.
As Executive Director, he oversaw the then 950-member association as well as the programs and staff of the Private Defender Program, the Release on Own Recognizance Program, and the Lawyer Referral Service. He was a perennial champion of the underdog and was proud of his work. We do not think it too boastful to say that Jack McInerney was a legend at the San Mateo County Courthouse. While his successes left an indelible mark on the County, his children are his greatest legacy.
When he could get away from his work, he enjoyed stamp collecting, duck hunting, cooking for the guys at the Cygnus Gun Club even when he wasn't hunting, and backpacking in Idaho with his friend Chuck Pierpoint.
Also, he helped to educate a generation of Bay Area law enforcement officers in the 70's and 80's, teaching Administration of Justice classes at the College of San Mateo. We are sure the connection got him out of several traffic tickets over the years.
In 2000, he retired from his career in law and never looked back. He did not play as much golf in retirement as his children would have liked him to, but he dabbled in scroll saw work and enjoyed cooking for his children and their respective families. He recently realized a life-long dream, publishing a book of anecdotes and life lessons titled My Mother's Knee and Other Joints. Check that off the bucket list, Jack!
For at least the last decade of his life, he enjoyed traveling with his wife, to see her family in Pennsylvania and especially to Kona, Hawaii.
These words are only a brief glimpse into the life of a wonderful and complicated man.
Jack is survived and will be missed by his wife, Celeste M. Grant; grown daughters Christine, Colleen, Caryn (Bruce), Cathleen (Nick), and their mother Joyce; grandsons Peter and Kyle; siblings Jill, Lynn, and Scott; and his kitty Gracie.
At his request, there will be no immediate services. A celebration of Jack's life will take place at a later date with family and close friends. Donations may be made in his memory to Second Harvest Food Bank. Indeed, they are the recipients of the proceeds of his book, a generous final gesture.


View the online memorial for John K. "Jack" McInerney