He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and came to Princeton after graduating from the James Madison High School. He joined Campus Club, later serving as a graduate trustee, and majored in the School of Public and International Affairs, writing his thesis on “German Opinion on German Rearmament.”
Gene served in ROTC in college but deferred military service until he was called up after his first year at Yale Law School. After two years of military service, mostly at Fort Bragg in New Jersey, he completed law school and spent two years as a law clerk in the New York State Court of Appeals. Completing that apprenticeship, Gene joined the firm of Schecter and Schecter — later Schecter, Schecter, and Wishod — in St. James, Long Island. There were other partnerships after that, but still a life in the law whether as a member of the National Panel of Arbitrators or as village justice in Head of the Harbor, Smithtown, Long Island.
Gene served as president of the Suffolk County Bar Association and the New York State Association of School Attorneys and was a member for 22 years of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics. He relocated to Ridgefield in 2009 to be nearer family but continued practicing law until retiring at age 85.
He is survived by his wife, Lora; their daughter, Karen; their son, Steven; and three grandsons.