Samuel H. Hofstadter, Justice of the State Supreme Court, Dead at 75

Funeral services were held here today for Judge Samuel H.Hofstadter, a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court for 37 years, who died Friday at the age of 75. Judge Hofstadter had retired from the bench last Dec. 31 but continued to serve as counsel to a New York law firm. The Jurist, a vigorous proponent of court reforms and a setter of Judicial milestones during his long career, was born in Cracow and came to the United States with his family at the age of five. He was brought up on New York’s lower East Side, worked his way through New York Law School and served as deputy state attorney general in the 1920s. He was elected as a Republican State Assemblyman in 1925 and served in the State Senate from 1929 to 1933. As a State Senator he led the Seabury investigation which uncovered widespread corruption in the administration of the late Mayor James J. Walker of New York. Judge Hofstadter was elevated to the State Supreme Court In 1993, and from 1947 until his retirement was a member of the Appellate Term of the court. One of his surviving relatives is the Pulitzer Prize winning historian, Richard Hofstadter, a nephew. The funeral was at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun. Judge Hofstadter was a member of the congregation for 40 years.