Mike Quinn has a favorite saying on his wall:
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Yet he’s still finding it hard to imagine himself leading the 2017 Morris County St. Patrick’s Parade as Grand Marshal.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Quinn, 72. He was vacationing in Belfast (Maine) when Jeff Rawding, president of the parade committee, called with the good news. “I couldn’t talk, I was so emotional,” Quinn recounted.
As the big day approaches–Saturday, March 11, at noon in Morristown–he’s struggling to control the anticipation.
“I’m trying hard to suppress it. It just keep building,” Quinn said last week, between congratulatory handshakes at the Morris Plains V.F.W., where parade participants gathered to learn their position in the line of march.
Slideshow photos by Bill Lescohier and Kevin Coughlin
FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON TO ‘THE SHAMROCK FOUR’
Established in Wharton in 1979, Morris County’s parade celebrates the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in the newly declared United States of America. Gen. George Washington gave his Irish militiamen at Jockey Hollow a day off on March 17, 1780, after their long, hard winter in Morristown.
In 1991, the Irish American Association of Northwest New Jersey and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick moved the festivities to Morristown.
“We were worried that nobody would show up,” said Quinn, who was instrumental in the move. Infamous, even. The rascal was one of the “Shamrock Four,” who got into hot water for painting shamrocks on Morristown streets. It’s now a hallowed tradition.
So are the crowds. An estimated 50,000- to 80,000 people come every year to cheer for 120 diverse groups, which arrive from near and far to march in the state’s largest St. Patrick’s parade. Twenty-three bands are signed up this year.
The parade is alcohol-free and family friendly, and Quinn is proud that taxpayers are off the hook. Over the years, the nonprofit parade committee voluntarily has donated $250,000 to the town, while raising more than $350,000 for charity, according to the parade’s website.
Some $40,000 was raised in 2016, said parade Co-Chair Ryan Dawson. This year’s charities include Project Children, Project Graduation and the Special Olympics. Dawson is looking forward to seeing Quinn at the head of the parade.
“He’s a lot of fun. He’s going to add flavor to the parade, lots of personality,” he said.
So why did the parade committee make Quinn wait so long?
“We were just torturing him,” Dawson joked.
‘HE LOOKS LIKE A LEPRECHAUN’
Co-chair Theresa Davis, president of the Irish American Association of Northwest NJ, promised that parade day will be “gorgeous, sunny and mild, all the children will be beautiful, and all the mothers will be proud.”
One reason for the sunny forecast, she said, is Quinn.
“He’s been the backbone of so many parades,” Davis said. “He looks like a leprechaun…and always has a smile and good word for everyone.”
Quinn may have acquired that last trait the hard way. His parents were Marines; he followed their footsteps into the service in 1963.
When he was growing up, he recalled with bemusement, his mother was not shy about delivering a crisp “love tap” if he failed to address visitors with a military “Yes, Sir” or “No, ma’am.”
Parts of his childhood were spent in West Orange–on the same street, coincidentally, with future parade Grand Marshals Jimmy Dangler and John Butler–and in East Hanover.
After high school in West Palm Beach, Fla., he attended the Dwight Stark School of Art, and later studied electrical engineering. He worked as a designer and electrician before starting his own interior design business, from which he recently retired after 30 years.
He also has volunteered as a fireman in Florham Park and Morristown–where he remains a member–and with Habitat for Humanity, where he joined rebuilding efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Quinn and his wife of nearly 50 years, Jacquelyn Swetz Quinn, raised two children and now reside in Chester. They enjoy traveling in their mobile home; Quinn is an avid photographer who loves to document their cross-country adventures.
‘IT’S ALL SEAT-OF-THE-PANTS’
The Grand Marshal designation became official last Friday at the Madison Hotel, at a packed gala replete with kilts and bagpipes. The affair was preceded by weeks of speaking engagements, pub tours and the like.
“It’s awesome. It’s humbling,” Quinn said.
As Grand Marshal, he will have a chance to savor pre-parade rituals that include a 10 a.m. Mass at Assumption Church, and the electric commotion in the staging area behind town hall.
Usually, Quinn’s hands are full on the Morristown Green running a morning entertainment program–something he helped create a few years back.
The activities start at 10:15, with performances by The Blarney Session ensemble, young singer Hugh Grennan, a band of 5th graders from the Thomas Jefferson and Sussex Avenue schools, and the DeNogla School of Irish Dance.
Mayor Tim Dougherty will welcome guests, Drew University doctoral candidate Kelly Morgan will talk about Irish Americans in WWI, and American Legion Post 390 of Denville will fire a 21-gun salute.
For Quinn, one of the parade’s charms is that “it’s all seat-of-the pants.”
When a 2010 storm toppled portable toilets, it fell to Morristown Police Chief Pete Demnitz to declare a last-minute postponement.
Quinn acknowledges the parade committee “is starting to get more organized”; if Mother Nature acts up this time, a March 18 makeup date is set.
Yet happily for Quinn, the Grand Marshal retains some clout as honorary commander of a 75-volunteer army. “I sort of get to do what I want,” he said.
Like finding room in the parade for his friend John Murphy’s green fire truck–the one Murphy bought for Notre Dame football games. Now, Quinn’s family members who don’t walk so well can cover the route in style.
A green fire truck in Mike Quinn’s parade.
Imagine that.
MORE COVERAGE OF THE 2017 MORRIS COUNTY ST. PATRICK’S PARADE
Wonderful couple to lead the 39th St. Patrick’s Day Parade down South Street, Morristown Mike and Jackie Quinn. Join in the fun…
Great article, Mike Q. will do us all proud leading the parading down the street.