FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 24, 2019 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 59
A man who made a difference
vschneps@gmail.com
“What a ride!” said Brooklyn
Borough President Eric Adams
in his opening remarks about
94-year-old Judge William C.
Thompson during the memorial
held in the elegant, gilded
domed court room in
Brooklyn Borough Hall — fitting
since the judge was a Brooklyn
College and Law School graduate.
Every speaker thereafter reinforced
Adams’ statement as they
shared their personal memories
of a man who broke the glass
ceiling and lived a life of “firsts.”
His proud and remarkably
successful son — Bill Thompson
Jr., former City Comptroller and
candidate for mayor who now
serves as head of the CUNY
board — served as the memorial’s
emcee. He “controlled”
the time each speaker had,
as there were a dozen speakers
who extolled his dad with
tears and laughter, each sharing
personal heartfelt memories of
Thompson’s effect on their lives.
Judge Thompson was a man of
firsts: first black elected state senator,
first black judge on the State
Supreme and Appellate Courts,
and mentor to many, helping to
found the Robert F. Kennedy
Jr. Bedford-Stuyvesant
Restoration Corporation
while being a friend and powerful
advocate in the civil rights
movement alongside Thurgood
Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
One of Judge Thompson’s
mentees is the current Brooklyn
District Attorney, Eric Gonzalez,
whom he knew as a teenager,
working for a state senator.
Before the standing-room-only
crowd of well-wishers, Gonzalez
recalled how the late judge took
him under his wing when he
was considering running for
Brooklyn DA.
“The judge not only encouraged
me to run, but in the next
breath, when I said I would, he
took out his Rolodex and began
making calls that he was supporting
me, a kid who grew up
in East New York!” Gonzalez
said.
He later recalled how grateful
he was too when the judge swore
him in privately with his family
— a memory for a lifetime.
Tears fell from my eyes as
Judge Sylvia Ash shared how
Judge Thompson acted as the
“wind beneath her wings,” helping
her to fly and encouraging
her to join the bench. Many others
repeated how grateful they
were to receive Thompson’s
undying support and His impact on truly be felt for through those he helped.Everyone in the room
had a program the judge’s history,signed by his two
children, Bill Jr. and
Annie. But within
minutes of the
ceremony, Bill Jr.
revealed that his
father, when asked
about his family,
would say he had
seven children.
In fact, from his three marriages,
Judge Thompson did have
stepchildren, but never referred
to them as such. A good lesson
for all of us who have children
from our multiple marriages.
The bond with these “children”
was so strong that, when
he retired from the bench, his
two stepsons asked him to join
their law firm, Ross & Hill. Out
of dozens of opportunities, the
judge did indeed spend his last
years with them at their firm.
he lost his beloved wife,
the Honorable Sybil Heart
to cancer, but from this
wrenching experience
created the Judges and
Lawyers Breast Cancer
Alert (JALBCA), which
has grown to provide
thousands of women
with free mammograms.
It was his way to
help others, and now
in death, his children
are continuing that
mission, asking people
donate to JALBCA in
dad’s memory. Their
is jalbca.org.
with the love, appreciation
power of his presence
on his impact will never
be forgotten. Judge Thompson
made history and his legacy lives
on in his children and the lives
of the people he touched.
I love that the family shared
these words with us, quoted
from Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”:
“I’ve lived a life that’s full
I’ve traveled each and every
highway
And more, much more than
this
I did it my way.”
It was an inspiring night and a
great tribute to a man who was
“a shining star of his time.”
Former City Comptroller Bill Thompson
Jr. memorialized his father at the
Brooklyn Borough Hall service.
Judge Sylvia Ash with former Mayor David Dinkins and former Congressman
Charlie Rangel at the memorial service.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric
Gonzalez
VICTORIA’S
SECRETS
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Opening a new supermarket
My friend Dragon Deng,
with whom I traveled
to China back in 2017,
joyfully opened his first IFresh
Asian-American supermarket
on Long Island, in Carle Place,
joining five other locations in
New York City. Here he is with
his wife Lily and Ed Cox, chairperson
of the New York State
Republican Party, and other
leaders in the Asian community.
Judge Bill Thompson Sr.
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