S. Michael Nadel

Michael Nadel passed away on September 5th after a long illness. He was 70.

Mike was born and raised in Manhattan. He grew up immersed in the often Byzantine world of New York politics. His father, Bernard Nadel, was a prominent leader of the Democratic Party who organized a memorable rally for John F. Kennedy’s Presidential campaign in the “Canyon of Heroes” in October 1960. In later years, Bernard Nadel served as a New York State Supreme Court Justice. Judge Nadel had a profound effect on Mike, who would devote his entire career to public service in a diverse and impressive array of legal, political, administrative and judicial positions.

Mike attended Stuyvesant High School before enrolling at Dartmouth. A Government Honors major, he was an acknowledged leader of our class. Mike was a member of Palaeopitus, Secretary of Tau Epsilon Phi, Treasurer of the UGC, President of the Jewish Life Council, a writer for the Daily D and a member of the Tucker Council. Mike received a Class of 1926 Fellowship with which he interned for Senator Robert F. Kennedy in the summer of 1965.

A four-year member of Army ROTC, Mike deferred his military service in order to attend Columbia University School of Law from which he graduated cum laude in June 1969. Following law school, and while waiting for his Army posting, Mike worked as an aide to Senator Thomas McIntyre of New Hampshire.

After completing his military service, Mike served as an Assistant District Attorney in New York County until February 1974, when he was recruited to become the chief Assistant to New York City Deputy Mayor Judah Gribetz. Less than a year later, New York Governor Hugh Carey brought Mike on board as Assistant Counsel, then as First Assistant Counsel to the Governor, positions Mike held for four years, until April 1979, when he was asked by New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch to join his cabinet as City Personnel Director. After two years in the Koch Administration, in January 1981, Mike began a four-year stint as Deputy Chief Administrator for Management Support for the New York State Unified Court System.

In 1985, Mike was appointed a Criminal Court Judge for the City of New York, but after two years on that bench, he decided to join Charles (Joe) Hynes, the Special State Prosecutor for the New York City Criminal Justice System, as his Counsel. Subsequently, when Hynes was elected District Attorney of Kings County (Brooklyn), Mike remained by his side in the same role, a partnership that, all told, lasted some ten years.

In 1997, New York Governor George Pataki appointed Mike to the New York State Court of Claims, the court that adjudicates claims against the State. Mike served more than ten years on that court until his retirement in 2008.

Mike was a clear thinker with first-rate analytical skills and the ability to assess and describe problems and articulate solutions crisply and succinctly. It was no accident that over the course of more than three decades leaders of New York State and City Government sought Mike’s advice and counsel concerning all manner of hot-button public issues.

As an alumnus of Dartmouth Mike served the College in a number of capacities: Treasurer of the Class of 1966; President of the Dartmouth Club; and Class Agent. He was also a member of the Dartmouth Lawyers Association and the Friends of Hillel.

Mike will be remembered for his warm and loyal friendship, his dry wit and his abiding love for his wife Julie and their daughter Kate. He is also survived by his stepson, Max Greiss, and his sister, Marlene Nadel Stolz, and her family.

— Gerald G. Paul