William Breen

BREEN
William P, 93, who lived in Montclair for more than 50 years, died on Saturday, February 18th, after a brief illness.
Born in New York City, Mr. Breen graduated from George Washington High School, where he was the president of his senior class.
Having taught himself to ski in New York's Central Park, Mr. Breen enlisted in the US Army's Tenth Mountain Division in 1942 and trained at Camp Hale, Colorado. He served in the Division's first company and attained the rank of first lieutenant.
Following World War II, Mr. Breen studied theatre in New York City. Recalled to the Korean Conflict in 1951, he served in the Army for two more years.
Mr. Breen met his future wife, Montclair native Helen Hanau, at a theatre workshop. They married in 1951 and settled in Montclair.
Mr. Breen began his career as a sales executive for the television network NBC. For two years in the mid-1960s, he sold the television-broadcasting rights to the Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn's films.
In 1968, Mr. Breen joined the television network ABC, where he led the sales team for ABC Evening News, collaborating with anchors Howard K Smith, Harry Reasoner, Barbara Walters, and Peter Jennings.
Mr. Breen helmed the sales and marketing of numerous Barbara Walters Specials. He also directed the marketing launch of Nightline, which Ted Koppel anchored, and led its sales during the program's first five years. In 2002, Nightline was ranked 23rd on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time."
In 1985, Mr. Breen became president of the American division of International Sport and Leisure (ISL), a Swiss sports-marketing company. ISL acquired the international sponsorship rights to the Olympics, which Mr. Breen sold to US-based companies, including Visa and Budweiser.
From 1991 until his retirement in 1995, Mr. Breen sold the sponsorship rights to the 1994 FIFA World Cup tournament and logo, the only World Cup to be held in the US.
Throughout the 1960s, Mr. Breen directed many plays for the old Montclair Dramatic Club, including a memorable "Barefoot in the Park." One of his greatest pleasures was coaching Little League baseball and playing with the neighborhood kids in pickup touch-football games.
Weekends would often find Mr. Breen on the tennis courts of Montclair's Brookdale Park. He was ranked in the top ten of ITF Super-Seniors Men's Tennis, 80 and over, Northeast Division.
Mr. Breen was pre-deceased by his wife, Helen; his brother, Matthew; and sisters Veronica, Jean, and Sally. He is survived by his partner, Carol Lederer of Somers, New York; his children, William Jr. and Lise Breen of Gloucester, Massachusetts; Timothy and Lynne Breen of Freeport, Maine; and Kenneth Breen, of Verona, New Jersey. Mr. Breen especially cherished his grandchildren, Conor, Leah, Aidan, and Liam.
A celebration of Mr. Breen's life will be held in June and his ashes spread on Sebec Lake, in Maine's North Woods, where he and his family summered for 40 years.