Former Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, 98, passed away Tuesday night, his family announced.
A Jewish American who proudly supported and often visited the State of Israel, Golden was a lifelong native of the Kings County borough he led from 1977 through the Sept. 11, 2001 Al Qaeda terror attacks on America.
At the age of 17, Golden served as a Navy medic on the LST 356 tank landing ship during the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy in World War II. A graduate of Stuyvesant High School, Golden earned degrees at New York University and Brooklyn Law School as well.
“My dad was one of a kind,” said his daughter Michele Golden. “He had an extraordinary life. He really fought for the borough and the city he loved.”
During his tenure, Golden worked hard to revive his borough’s neighborhoods, including those of Williamsburg and Crown Heights.
Immediately following the August 19, 1991 three-day pogrom against the latter’s Chabad Hasidic residents, Golden formed the Crown Heights Coalition with key leaders of the neighborhood’s Jewish, Black and Caribbean communities to ensure the violence would not be repeated.
The meetings of the Crown Heights Coalition were held in Golden’s office for the final 10 years of his reign as borough president, and were largely responsible for the interracial peace and quiet that followed.
Golden was also responsible for the revival of downtown Brooklyn, with the opening of the Brooklyn Marriott Hotel and Metrotech as well as the upgrades in Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the New York Aquarium in Coney Island.
He was deeply proud of his accomplishments, but even more proud of the Brooklynites who lived in the borough.
“There are some 90 languages spoken in this borough,” Golden once proudly told this writer. “It’s the most populous borough in the city; in fact Brooklyn itself was a city until it became part of New York City in 1898. Brooklyn is an amazing mosaic.”
Howard Golden, a proud American Jew, is survived by Aileen, his wife of 65 years, daughters Michele and Dana, and grandchildren Jamie and Andrew.
Yehi zichro baruch.
