Stanley Steingut - Biography

Stanley Steingut (May 20, 1920 Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City - December 8, 1989 New York City) was an American lawyer and politician.

Life

Stanley Steingut was the son of New York State Assembly Speaker Irwin Steingut. He attended the Peddie School and Union College. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, went on to graduate from St. John's University School of Law and was admitted to the bar in 1950.

He was a Democratic member from Kings County of the New York State Assembly from 1953 to 1978, and was minority leader from 1969 to 1974, and Speaker from 1975 to 1978.

In 1975, Steingut and his son Robert were indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury on corruption charges relating to Robert Steingut's election campaign for a New York City councilman-at-large seat. The New York Court of Appeals dismissed the indictment on jurisdictional grounds in 1977.

In 1978, while the sitting Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Steingut was defeated when running for re-election to the Assembly. His defeat was ascribed by many political observers to inadequate attention to his home district. It was said that he had become too caught up in Albany and state affairs. He was defeated in the 1978 Democratic primary by Murray Weinstein, a political unknown, who went on to beat him narrowly in the general election, in which Steingut ran as a Liberal.

After losing his Assembly seat, he served more than a year as Chairman of the New York State Sports Authority. He also resumed the practice of law, initially as counsel to the firm of Baskin & Sears and later as the senior partner in the Manhattan law firm of Berger & Steingut.

He had been suffering from lung cancer and died of pneumonia at the Tisch Hospital.

He was a founder and a trustee of Touro College. He received honorary degrees from Union College and Polytechnic University.

He married Madeline Fellerman, and they had three children: Robert Steingut, an investment banker and former City Council member at large from Brooklyn; Theodore Steingut; and Ilene Steingut Vallifuoco.

Sources

• [1] Obit in NYT on December 9, 1989