Joseph A. Suozzi, American judge and politician, Died at 95

  Law, Politician

Joseph A. Suozzi was born on August 22, 1921, in Ruvo del Monte and died on October 16, 2016.

He was an attorney at Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., a Garden City, New York-based law firm.

During 1949, when 28 years old, Suozzi was elected to become the third of Glen Cove’s city court judges.

However, reportedly the New York Times said that he was the youngest elected or appointed judge in the United States.

Joseph has also served as a justice in New York State’s supreme court, as well as in its appellate division.

He was raised in a small medieval village in the southern Italian province of Potenza.

Then, in 1925 Joseph and his mother, Rosa Ciampa, emigrated to the United States .

Together they joined his father, Michele, who had preceded them to the U.S., arriving in 1913.

Prior to him returning to Italy in 1920 to marry, Michele Suozzi served in the U.S. infantry, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Because of this, Joseph Suozzi was also a citizen of the United States.

He attended elementary and high school in Glen Cove and Oyster Bay.

Suozzi volunteered as an Air Cadet prior to his graduation from college.

Suozzi entered military service with the United States Air Force during World War II, and became a navigator assigned to a B-24 bombing crew of the 15th Air Force.

Suozzi was based at Torretta Air Field, in Cerignola, Italy – less than 50 miles from his birthplace.

Suozzi completed 35 bombing missions in Austria, Yugoslavia, Germany, and Italy, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three Clusters.

He was the father of former Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi, who was elected Mayor of the City of Glen Cove at the age of 31, and became the youngest person ever to hold the Nassau County Executive position, which he held from 2002-2009.

He also has four other children: the late Joseph M. Suozzi, an attorney and accountant who was associated with Deutsche Bank in Europe, daughter Rosemary Mancini Lloyd, who is a Unitarian minister and assistant pastor of the First Church of Boston, Dr. William Suozzi, a doctor of internal medicine, and Christopher Suozzi, who is associated with Credit Suisse First Boston.

Joseph A. Suozzi passed away at 95 years old.