IN MEMORIUM: David A. Englander
David A. Englander, attorney and longtime Palisades resident, died on September 1 at the age of 74. David will be remembered as “a gentleman and a gentle man,” as one colleague said, and as a man whose first priority was his family - Judy Rafel Englander, his wife of 48 years; his daughters, Emily Englander and Freya Sakamoto; his sons-in-law, Marc Field and Kazuo Sakamoto; and his grandchildren, Nathan, 15, Ruby, 12 and Kai, 9.
As for David’s second priority, it was a three-way tie between his clients, of whom he took great care, his friends, and his dogs - not necessarily in that order and depending on the day. David and Judy moved from the Upper West Side to Palisades in 1978 with their two young daughters. David, a graduate of Brandeis University and Fordham Law, began his career at the Manhattan criminal division of The Legal Aid Society before moving on to The Fortune Society as in-house counsel and then returning to Legal Aid with The Prisoners’ Rights Project. In the late 70s, he shifted into private practice, sharing a law office with his father in NYC. In 1995, David partnered with attorney Marjorie Smith and moved his practice to Tappan, NY.
Six years ago, he moved into his home office on Washington Spring Road and became, as his wife puts it, “the neighborhood lawyer,” continuing his practice and donating his legal expertise to various projects, including the locals’ acquisition of the Palisades Cemetery, which they rescued from neglect. David also volunteered his time as a teacher and then board member of One to One Learning and was honored by the group in 2019. Memorial gathering to be held at a future date.