Judy Jacobs, Longtime Nassau County Legislator, Dies at 77

Legis. Judy Jacobs, who served Legislative District 16 in Nassau County for 11 terms, has died at age 77.

Jacobs was diagnosed in May with myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer which caused her body to weaken, Newsday reports. The longtime politician hit her head Tuesday morning at her Woodbury home and she passed away at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset at 9:30 p.m., the publication reports.

“I admire Judy for her passion to make Nassau a county a wonderful place to live,” Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said in a statement. “She fought hard for the issues she believed in. As presiding officer she guided the legislature with distinction and honor.”

Jacobs, a Democrat, served Legislative District 16, which includes Plainview, Old Bethpage, Jericho, Syosset, Woodbury, Hicksville, Old Westbury and Roslyn Heights communities.

She joined the newly formed Nassau County Legislature in 1995, where she served as minority leader from March 1995 until Dec. 31, 1999, and served as presiding officer from January 2000 until Dec. 31, 2007.

“She treated her colleagues with respect and established a collegiate atmosphere which encouraged respectful debate and cooperation which I know is sorely missed,” Mangano said. “She truly was an example of all that is good in a public servant.”

Jacobs was a community activist long before serving as an elected official, stemming back 35 years. She was the director of community relations for Northwell Health and member of sevearl community organizations, including the Lions Club, the Rotary, the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters and the North Shore Synagogue.

“Judy Jacobs was an amazing person in every sense of the word,” Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton said on her Facebook page. “A heels-dug-in legislator for the so many causes in which she believed, yet with such a soft, compassionate heart for everyone around her.”

Jacobs was an advocate for quality of life and child care issues and actively campaigned in the fight against breast cancer, heart disease and Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.

She helped lead the way with legislation to ban smoking in all restaurants, bars and workplaces in Nassau County and worked on island-wide issues concerning Medicaid reform, economic development, planning, and public health and safety concerns.

She lived in Woodbury for more than 40 years and has three children and nine grandchildren.

A funeral service for Jacobs will be held Friday at Gutterman’s, located at 8000 Jericho Turnpike in Woodbury, at 1 p.m.

Patch file photo