John W. McGowan, son of Bart R. McGowan and Patricia Lavelle McGowan, was born in New York, NY, and raised in Pearl River, NY, with his three older sisters, Margaret, Patti, and Maureen. John attended St. Margaret of Antioch School (Pearl River, NY), Albertus Magnus High School (Bardonia, NY), and earned his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from St. Thomas Aquinas College (Sparkill, NY). John then earned his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from New York Law School (New York, NY) where he served as the Managing Editor of the New York Law School Law Review.
After law school, John worked for a law firm handling insurance coverage litigation and then served as Assistant District Attorney, and later as Senior Assistant District Attorney, with the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, assigned to the Special Victims’ Unit and as the Ramapo Community Prosecution Supervisor. John also served as an Assistant District Attorney with the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office assigned to the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau.
Following his tenure as a prosecutor, John entered private practice with the law firm of Bleakley Platt & Schmidt, LLP, focusing on general civil litigation. After being elevated to partner, John successfully developed the firm’s public sector labor law practice group. In November 2023, John started his own practice, McGowan Law, PLLC, based in New City, NY, where he represents police officers and police unions as well as individuals and businesses in the areas of commercial litigation, personal injury, estate planning, and real estate transactions.
In 2019, John was elected to the Rockland County Legislature representing Pearl River, Nanuet, and Chestnut Ridge. After three years as a county legislator, John was elected to the New York State Assembly, District 97, representing Orangetown and Ramapo. As a state legislator, John has fought to enhance public safety, support law enforcement, increase affordability, and preserve local control against unnecessary state intervention.
John also served as an adjunct professor at St. Thomas Aquinas College for six years, teaching undergraduate courses in law and criminal justice. In addition, he served as a faculty advisor for the Orangetown Police Youth Court for three years.
Aside from his business and political career, John is a dedicated volunteer, proud of his hometown and Irish heritage. John joined the AOH, Division 3, in 2004 when he began playing bagpipes with the Rockland County AOH Edward V. Larkin Memorial Pipe Band. John was elected Pipe Major in 2010. Among the many achievements with the Pipe Band, John is most proud to have led the band in Ireland during Easter weekend in 2016 for the 100th Anniversary of the Easter Rising, culminating with an historic march down Falls Road in Belfast on Easter Sunday morning.
John continued his service to the AOH as Rockland County AOH President from 2017 through 2023. During his six years as County President, John successfully increased participation and fundraising for the Rockland County St. Patrick’s Day Parade and led the AOH and Parade back from the pandemic after a two-year hiatus. At the Emerald Ball in 2022—the first following the pandemic—John arranged a moving tribute to the many members tragically lost during the pandemic to allow the AOH/LAOH to mourn collectively and unite in their shared Irish heritage of perseverance through adversity toward better times ahead.
John is married to his high school sweetheart, Christine Rose McGowan, and they live happily in Pearl River with their two dogs—Finnegan and Shilelagh—and are awaiting the birth of their first child, who is expected in January 2025.
The Parade has held a special place for John and the McGowan family, as John’s father, Bart, passed away from cancer on March 19, 1995, when John was 10 years old, just hours after the conclusion of the Parade. John has always felt connected to the Parade knowing his father Bart’s love of Irish music and his family’s Irish heritage would continue to carry on each year. The privilege to serve as the Parade’s Grand Marshal is the honor of a lifetime, and a day of joy in remembrance of his late father.