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Thursday, November 25, 1997.

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"A day of ecstasy and triumph" for Judge Cooke

By TOM RUE


MONTICELLO - More than 300 filled the lawn of Sullivan County's courthouse as retired chief judge Lawrence H. Cooke was bedecked with Hawaiian flowers befitting one of Sullivan County's most honored citizens.

The sun shone brightly while the air was unseasonably cool.

Cooke served as a district attorney, later supreme court justice in Sullivan County, finally concluding his career when he retired at age 75 as the highest judge in the State -- chief judge of the NYS Court of Appeals. He is 82.

For years, local politicians have mulled naming a public building after Cooke. In 1993, a suggestion was made by then Monticello mayor John Diuguid and others to name Village Hall after Cooke. Another village official commented at the time that the courthouse would be better suited since it was where Cooke began his judicial career.

On September 14, four years later, that official re-naming of the courthouse took place. A bust of Cooke, by Livingston Manor sculptor Bud Wertheim, will overlook the building's rotunda. A blue and white rectangular sign, temporarily mounted by the courthouse steps, will identify the building as the Lawrence H. Cooke Sullivan County Courthouse.

The renaming was approved in County Resolution 263-97, on July 17. Cooke said "the [county] legislature's decision to revise the name, on motion of Bob Kunis, came as a complete surprise."

Speakers set in the context of local history the decision to name one of the county's central administrative hubs after Cooke.

"The history of Sullivan County is one of debate, disagreement and controversy, said county historian John Conway, who related how Monticello was selected as county seat, defeating Liberty by use of fraud. "It took generations for the scars from that deception to heal," Conway said.

Conway called Sullivan's present courthouse "the scene of resolution of numerous noteworthy controversies," and also the scene of three known hangings. Defendants were executed inside the courthouse in those days, Conway said, in a procedure known as being "jerked to Jesus."

"Today we have no controversy. We have no disagreement. We have only the unanimous consent that a great man is finally getting his due," Conway concluded. In addition to unveiling the plaque and bust, local, state and federal officials presented certificates and resolutions of respect. The office of Sen. Daniel Moynihan sent an American flag, to be flown at the court house, said to have been flown over the Capitol Building the previous Wednesday.

The pillars of the federal style courthouse stood draped with beige linen as the Office of Court Administration Bagpipe Corps played solemn ceremonial strains.

Friends and family of Cooke, local lawyers, politicians and citizens, as well as dignitaries from across the state and country gathered. William F. Richardson, retired chief justice of the State of Hawaii, presented both Judge and Mrs. Alice Cooke with flowered necklaces from his home state, noting that "leis were originally only worn by royalty."
Other speakers included supreme court justice Anthony Kane, legislator Bob Kunis (substituting for chairman Rusty Pomeroy, whose wife was said to have given birth that morning), legislator Rodney Gaebel, professor Vincent Bonventre of Albany Law School, and Cooke himself.

Kunis recalled first meeting Cooke in 1959. Kunis and several Monticello High School students were taken to Cooke's court chambers for a rebuke, Kunis said, for their part in a "somewhat uncontrollable" fight after a soccer game. "George was part of the fracas," Kunis alleged, calling on the younger Cooke -- county clerk George Cooke -- to explain why he was not present at the meeting with the judge.

The afternoon program on the lawn and steps was open to the public. But organizers limited a program inside the courthouse, in the morning, to invited guests. Harriet Ledina of Monticello -- who went to both -- said two courtrooms were packed tight. Spectators in one courtroom watched on a tv screen proceedings in the other room.

Thanking many of the dignitaries for attending, Cooke remarked about the "one person here who I wish had not appeared on the program -- funeral undertaker Jim Kenny. He had that long, lean, hungry look, and I'm not ready to do business with him," Cooke said. Kenny is also Monticello's mayor.

Summing up core values, Cooke said, "When I get all the way over the hill, when Jim Kenny has his way, think of me as someone who wanted to be your friend and who hated to say good bye."