Eugene H. Nickerson
| Eugene Hoffman Nickerson | |
|---|---|
| Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York | |
|
In office October 20, 1977 – January 1, 2002 |
|
| Appointed by | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | Orrin Grimmell Judd |
| Succeeded by | Frederic Block |
| County Executive of Nassau County, New York | |
|
In office 1962–1970 |
|
| Preceded by | A. Holly Patterson |
| Succeeded by | Ralph G. Caso |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 2, 1918 Orange, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | January 1, 2002 (aged 83) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Education |
Harvard University (AB) Columbia University Law School (JD) |
Eugene Hoffman Nickerson (August 2, 1918 – January 1, 2002) was the Democratic county executive of Nassau County, New York from 1962 until 1970. Nickerson was the only Democrat to be elected county executive in Nassau County until 2001. Later, as a federal district court judge, he presided over a challenge to the Pentagon's "Don’t ask, don’t tell" policy on homosexuality and the notorious Abner Louima police brutality case in New York.
A descendant of President John Quincy Adams, he entered public life as a patrician liberal politician, but later developed a reputation as a steely, independent-minded judge with little patience for lawyers' antics.
Nickerson came from patrician Yankee stock, and was a descendant both of the Nickerson family of Cape Cod and of President John Quincy Adams. His mother, né Ruth Constance Comstock (July 11, 1891 – August 15, 1988), was from Orange, New Jersey. She gave birth to three sons: Schuyler, Eugene and Adams. His father, Hoffman Nickerson (December 6, 1888 – March 24, 1965), was an Army officer, state legislator, and historian who wrote The turning point of the Revolution; or, Burgoyne in America concerning the Saratoga campaign.
Eugene grew up in New York City and Mill Neck on Long Island. At St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, he was quarterback of the football team and captain of the hockey team. But shortly before he entered Harvard College in 1937, Nickerson was stricken by polio, seemingly ending what had started out to be a promising athletic career. For two years, he was forced to wear his right arm in a brace held out from his body. While at Harvard, Nickerson showed unusual perseverance by teaching himself to play squash with his left hand. Ultimately he was named the squash team's captain and its ranking player. Harvard's athletic director, William Bingham, wrote to another Harvard graduate, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, about the courage of this young squash player. President Roosevelt answered Bingham's letter saying "What we need are more Nickersons." Bingham sent a copy of the President's letter to Eugene's father, Hoffman Nickerson. The letter was kept in a box for years until Eugene's wife, Marie-Louise, took it out to read to their daughters. In 1943, he graduated from Columbia University Law School, where he was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Augustus Noble Hand of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then for Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone of the U.S. Supreme Court from October 1944 to April 1946.
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