Raised in
Passaic, New Jersey, Perretti attended
Montclair Kimberley Academy, where he competed in prep baseball and basketball, graduating in the class of 1949. He graduated from
Colgate University in 1953 and received his law degree from
Cornell Law School in 1956. He clerked for retired Superior Court Judge Alexander P. Waugh. He served as Assistant Prosecutor in
Essex County from 1958 until 1960. He was a partner in the firm of
Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti in
Newark, joining the firm as an associate in 1960 and becoming a partner in 1963. Perretti served on the board of
Montclair Kimberley Academy (MKA). He served as chairman of the board, and was an architect of the merger of Montclair Academy and The Kimberley School in 1974. Perretti was sworn in as
Attorney General of New Jersey on February 14, 1989, replacing
W. Cary Edwards, who resigned. As Attorney General, he led in the prosecution of New Jersey beach polluters, in the development of legislation to restrict automatic weapons, in improving oversight of the financing of
Atlantic City casinos, and in combating organized crime. A resident of
Montclair, New Jersey, Perretti died on February 27, 2016. He and his wife, Ruth, had three children. ==References==