Howard Glickstein, former Touro Law Center dean, civil rights champion, dies at 96

Years after Howard Glickstein traveled to Indonesia, he received a letter from a young man who had shown him around the country, and welcomed him into his family’s home for a meal.

The man wrote to say he had become a practicing physician — fulfilling a dream Glickstein had quietly helped finance after learning that medical school was otherwise beyond his reach, his niece, Karen Newman, told Newsday.

"He certainly wasn’t telling us all these things that he did," Newman said. "He just did them."

That unassuming generosity ran through the life of Glickstein, a Northport resident who helped draft landmark federal civil rights legislation, led Touro Law Center for nearly two decades and mentored generations of lawyers and judges. He died June 9 at 96.

Civil rights advocate

Glickstein left his job at a Manhattan law firm in 1960 to join the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Longtime friend and mentee, Manuel Esteban, said Glickstein wrote of wanting a career that was "socially significant."

Working in the division’s Appeals and Research Section, Glickstein helped draft the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He later served as general counsel and staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

After leaving government, Glickstein became the founding director of the Center for Civil Rights at Notre Dame Law School in 1973. He later joined Howard University School of Law, where he established an equal-employment litigation clinic.

Those roles began the legal-education career that defined the rest of his life.

"A law school dean is a private job, but you’re serving people, you’re serving young lawyers," said State Supreme Court Justice James Matthews, a longtime friend of Glickstein. "The concept of being involved in something for the greater good, as opposed to just self-interest, was always part of him."

Mentoring future lawyers

Glickstein became dean of the University of Bridgeport School of Law in 1980 and Touro Law Center’s dean in 1986. He served until 2004, helping Touro obtain full American Bar Association accreditation and championing its move from Huntington to Central Islip, close to the state and federal courthouses.

"It was Howard who had the idea to move the law center," said Patricia Salkin, a former Touro Law dean and Touro University provost. The relocation created "a courthouse campus," she said, where students could observe proceedings firsthand.

Suffolk acting State Supreme Court Justice Victoria Gumbs-Moore, a Touro alumna, said Glickstein supported the founders of the Amistad Long Island Black Bar Association by opening the law school for meetings and connecting members with prominent legal figures.

He took the same interest in their individual ambitions. Having dinner with him "was like being at dinner with a relative," Gumbs-Moore said. "He was genuinely interested in what our goals were."

State Supreme Court Justice Valerie Cartright, also a Touro alumna, said Glickstein saw potential in people and created opportunities for them to succeed.

"He would reach down to lift others up and made himself available to anyone who had a request of him," Cartright said.

A belief in people

That belief in people shaped Glickstein’s civic work. He chaired Huntington’s first ethics board in 1998, where Matthews said Glickstein viewed ethics rules as an opportunity to help public officials learn from their mistakes.

"Howard was a great believer in redemption," Matthews said. "Unless it’s really grievous, one strike, you’re not out."

Born on Sept. 14, 1929 in the Bronx, Glickstein graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. He served two years in the Army and later earned a master of laws degree from Georgetown University.

Glickstein's curiosity extended beyond law. He loved Paris and seemed determined to see the world, Newman said.

"There were very few places, I think, over his lifetime that he didn’t get to, if any," she said.

But he rarely missed a family milestone, Newman said.

"He was a person who showed up," his niece said. "Whether it was a wedding or a celebration or a shiva ... he was always there."

Along with Newman, Glickstein is survived by his sister, Helaine Newman, and several other nieces and nephews.

A memorial service at Touro Law Center is scheduled for Sept. 16. Donations can be made to the Howard A. Glickstein Endowed Public Interest Fellowship Fund originally created to commemorate his 95th birthday.