Robert Del Tufo
Robert J. Del Tufo (November 18, 1933 – March 2, 2016) was an American lawyer who led two major public offices in New Jersey. He served as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1977 to 1980 and as New Jersey Attorney General from 1990 to 1993.
Born in Newark to Italian immigrant parents, Del Tufo attended Newark Academy, earned a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1955, and received a law degree from Yale University in 1958. He joined the New Jersey Bar in 1959 and practiced law in Morristown (1960–1974) and Newark (1980–1986). He worked as Morris County assistant prosecutor (1963–1965) and first assistant prosecutor (1965–1967), and he also served as legal secretary to New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Weintraub (1958–1960).
As U.S. Attorney, Del Tufo criticized the Abscam sting operation as entrapment. He ran for governor in the 1985 Democratic primary but was defeated by Peter Shapiro. He was sworn in as New Jersey Attorney General on January 16, 1990, serving until his resignation in August 1993 to join the New York City law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In 2006, Governor Jon Corzine appointed him Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).
Del Tufo was married to Ann, with whom he had four children before they divorced. He married Katherine Nouri Hughes in 1994; she is the vice president of communications for the Milken Family Foundation, and Del Tufo became stepfather to her two daughters. He lived in Morris Township in the 1980s. He died of lung cancer in Princeton, New Jersey, in 2016 at age 82.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:23 (CET).