G Joseph Minnetti

Appointed by five Presidents to help regulate aviation as it flourished into the jet age. Although Mr. Minetti was a Democrat, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, appointed him to the Federal Maritime Board in 1955, then to the aeronautics board in 1956. His reappointments by Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Jimmy Carter made Mr. Minetti one of the longest-serving members of any Federal regulatory panel. After graduating from Fordham University, he earned law degrees from St. John's. In the 1930's he taught at St. John's and practiced law. Twice he was a prosecutor. From 1937-39 he was a special assistant district attorney in Brooklyn prosecuting a variety of organized crime rackets, thefts and frauds, and misconduct by lawyers. From 1940-43 and 1945-46, he was a special assistant United States attorney in the antitrust division and specialized in war production frauds. In World War II he served in Army intelligence in Europe. His first wife, the former Angela Ahern, died in 1957. In 1961 he married the former Jean Kerr, the widow of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin. She died in 1979. His survivors include his wife of nine years, the former Madeleine Heikenen; a daughter, Tierney Grinavic of Huntington, Md., and a grandchild.