The Catskill Chronicle

After 25 years on the bench, it’s time to relax!

Story and photos by Ted Waddell

MONTICELLO/ALBANY – Not bad for the son of a sausage maker.

Judge Anthony T. Kane recently announced he was stepping down from his position as an Associate Justice of the New York State Appellate Division, Third Department, after a total of a quarter of a century dedicated to serving the public.

“I come from a blue collar background, and although my father was not a formally educated man, he owned a company…and my mother was born in Budapest who came to the United States as a 13-year old,” he recalled, adding that while living with his parents in Mount Vernon, he helped stuff Italian sausages during the summer in the Bronx.

Kane said that under the ”steady guidance” of their mother, his brother was the first in a large Hungarian/Irish family to earn a college degree, and Judge Kane was the first to attend graduate school.

After deciding that a career in economics wasn’t his cup of tea, Kane took the Law School Admission Tests (LSATs) “and by some twist of fate I did well on them” and after graduating from Iona College “by another strange twist of fate” was admitted to Cornell Law School.

“When I graduated in 1969, there was a lot of social movement, social unrest going on at that time…[and I decided} I wanted to do some kind of public service law.”

Upon learning there was an opening as a legal services attorney in Sullivan County, Kane and his wife Nancy packed up a few boxes of law books, moved to Liberty.

He started working for Nat Hand while she landed a teaching job at Eldred Central School. The couple eventually settled in Forestburgh where they have  lived for the last 35 years, along the way raising their two sons Mathew and Timothy.

Later as a public defender, Kane worked alongside Ira Cohen and Gary Greenwald. He then joined the law firm run by Steve Oppenheim and Ted Drew, which later became Oppenheim, Drew and Kane, but in 1980 went out on his own as a private practice attorney, also serving as legal counsel for the Town
of Forestburgh.

In 1984, Kane tossed his hat into the political arena in a bid for Sullivan County Family Court Judge, got elected and took the bench in 1985…

To read the full story go to – Judge Kane Hangs Up His Robes in the new Sullivan Faces Section of The Catskill Chronicle or just click on the link.

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