We are not only a preeminent court of law and equity but also a court that honors tradition. Sidney Asch honored all of us through his public service, starting as a district leader in the Bronx (albeit one with a Ph.D., a combination that I am sure has never been replicated), a state legislator, a municipal court then Civil Court judge, a Supreme Court justice and finally a member of our court from 1982 to 1995. As a judge, Sidney was smart, scholarly, fair, unflappably courteous and a genuine humanist.
On a personal note, Sidney was from the Bronx of my childhood. I knew him well, even though our service at the Appellate Division did not overlap. After my parents moved to Riverdale from what I like to call the “real Bronx,” my father and Sidney became close friends, working together to create the Riverdale Y.
