Newsday Cites Meyer Suozzi, "Garden City Law Firm's Gesture of Tribute"

Media Source: Newsday

Twenty years after his death, John English, an adviser to presidents, has been honored by the law firm he helped start. Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein has dedicated a boardroom in his memory at its headquarters in Garden City. The firm moved into the space last fall, and on Wednesday it named its boardroom after the man who founded the firm in 1960. 'The celebration of Jack's life with his friends, family and colleagues and the boardroom itself are a beautiful tribute to our founder,' said Lois Carter Schlissel, the firm's managing attorney. English, who was 61 when he died of colon cancer on Nov. 7, 1987, was a political powerhouse. He took part in the making of President John F. Kennedy in 1960 and 'functioned as an insider' in President Jimmy Carter's failed re-election bid in 1980, according to his obituary in Newsday. He also played a key role in Sen. Edward Kennedy's run for the White House in the 1980s, when he raised more than $100,000. Locally, he engineered the 1961 victory of Eugene Nickerson as Nassau's first Democratic county executive. At a memorial service a year after English died, his former partner and retired State Court of Appeals judge, Bernard Meyer, summed him up this way: 'He was incomparable at figuring what others wanted in life and getting it for them.'