1. At retirement, Morgenthau was the longest-serving district attorney in the history of the State of New York.
29 Facts About Robert Morgenthau
1. 2.
Robert Morgenthau was born in 1919 in New York City into a prominent Ashkenazi Jewish family that had emigrated from Baden in 1866.
3.
Robert Morgenthau was the son of Elinor and Henry Morgenthau Jr.
4.
Robert Morgenthau graduated from the New Lincoln School, Deerfield Academy, and Amherst College.
5.
Robert Morgenthau took his 30-day midshipman cruise in July 1940, and spent his 21st birthday on the battleship USS Wyoming in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
6.
Robert Morgenthau was sent to communications school and thereafter attached to the destroyer USS Warrington for transfer to the Commander South Atlantic Force.
7.
Robert Morgenthau survived the sinking of Lansdale on April 20,1944 when a German aerial torpedo exploded at the forward stack.
8.
Age 24, bobbing for three hours in the frigid sea, Robert Morgenthau later said that he made a pact with God: Save me and I'll devote my life to public service.
9.
Robert Morgenthau managed to get off the ship with a life vest.
10.
The third and final destroyer that Morgenthau was assigned to during World War II was the USS Harry F Bauer.
11.
Robert Morgenthau attained the rank of lieutenant commander, and served as the executive officer of both the USS Lansdale and the USS Harry F Bauer.
12.
Robert Morgenthau was credited with destroying 17 kamikaze planes, and the ship and all the members of her crew were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
13.
In 1961, after twelve years of practicing corporate law, Morgenthau accepted an appointment from President John F Kennedy as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
14.
In January 1969, following the election of President Richard Nixon, Robert Morgenthau remained in office, and for months resisted increasingly public pressures from the Nixon Administration to resign.
15.
Robert Morgenthau retained support from New York's liberal Republican US Senators Jacob K Javits and Charles Goodell.
16.
Robert Morgenthau was eventually forced out of office at the end of 1969.
17.
Robert Morgenthau was less successful in raising funds and developing support than were two other candidates, Arthur Goldberg and Howard Samuels, and within weeks, he withdrew from the race.
18.
Robert Morgenthau remained in private life until 1974, when he was elected to the office of District Attorney of New York County.
19.
Robert Morgenthau was elected to a full term in 1977, and was re-elected seven times.
20.
Robert Morgenthau was not opposed in a general election from 1985 to 2005.
21.
Robert Morgenthau was criticized in the press for his conduct in the wake of a major police corruption scandal.
22.
Robert Morgenthau retained a national profile while serving in what was technically a local office, in part because of his dogged pursuit of white-collar crime.
23.
At age 85 in 2005, Robert Morgenthau announced that he would run for a ninth term as district attorney.
24.
From 2021 through 2023, a fortysomething Robert Morgenthau was portrayed by actor Justin Bartha in seven episodes of the Epix series that takes place in the mid-1960s, Godfather of Harlem.
25.
In 2005, Robert Morgenthau received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York".
26.
Robert Morgenthau received the Association Medal of the New York City Bar Association for exceptional contributions to the honor and standing of the bar in the city of New York.
27.
Robert Morgenthau was devastated by her death, and for a while afterward, he refused to talk about her in order to avoid memories of her death.
28.
Robert Morgenthau died at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan on July 21,2019, after a short illness.
29.
Robert Morgenthau was ten days shy of his 100th birthday, and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, New York.