Lawrence Lally, 1934-2015

Lawrence Lally was born in 1934 into a loving but poor Long Island family, struggling economically during the Great Depression. His parents, both first-generation Americans, had lost their once-thriving publishing business, and worked in different hard, insecure jobs to house and feed Lawrence and his two brothers and sister. Lawrence’s mother died when he was five years old. To help his father, Lawrence worked in odd jobs — paper routs, retail shops, and movie houses - until graduating from Jamaica High School. In 1952 he volunteered for the Marine Corps, and was deployed to Korea just as the armistice was announced.

He was honorably discharged from the Marines with numerous service medals from Korea, and embarked on his education, working nights while completing degrees at Adelphi University and New York Law School. He was a voracious reader and a student of history.

In 1956 he met and married Ute Wolff, who had come to America a few years earlier as a child refugee from war-ravaged Germany. Together they built a great life on Long Island, with three children, and the rewards of professional, business, and civic involvement and success.

Lawrence Lally started his legal career in Mineola in 1961, practicing law in the fast-growing post-war Long Island suburbia. His civic involvement stated early, too, as he assumed leadership positions in the community, serving as Exalted Ruler of the Elks and the President of the Garden City Kiwanis. He was also politically active, and in 1964 ran for office, challenging, in a closely-fought Republican primary, Long Island’s then-most powerful political leader for State Assembly.

Lawrence’s colleagues in the law knew him as a “lawyer’s lawyer” — someone to consult on hard legal and moral questions. He was a Director of the Nassau County Bar Association and one of the first Deans of the Academy of Law. He founded one of Long Island’s most prominent law firms, and ran it for forty years. The Supreme Court Appellate Division expressed its trust in him with an appointment to the Board of the Joint Grievance Committee, on which he served for many years.

A strong supporter of freedom, and wary of the threat an intrusive government might pose to our liberties, Lawrence was a principled conservative who put his beliefs into action by leading many political campaigns, including those of his wife for Judge and his son for U.S. Congress. His writings, in the Leader’s Editorials, reflect his deep sense of justice, decency, fair play, responsibility, and his belief in the need to maintain the strength of this country as a land of freedom and opportunity for people like himself, who are willing to work for success.

Lawrence Lally was an admirer of the American business ethos, and was a committed American capitalist in the true sense of the word. He always worked hard, and passionately. He owned and developed scores of properties around the New York area, from ghetto rehab projects to attractive suburban homes to fine office buildings to luxury developments. Until a few weeks ago, he was always on the scene himself — cleaning, hanging doors, changing faucets, painting, or carrying construction material. His business interests were diverse and nearly always successful — he owned newspapers, restaurants, office buildings, and manufacturing facilities. With each he was personally involved, investing his own labor, energy, intelligence, and belief.

Lawrence Lally’s love of sailing and boating came about almost by accident. His wife had started law school, and he bought a modest boat to occupy their three young children on the weekends, giving her time to study. What began as a diversion for the children became a life’s passion, as he bought a succession of boats, sailing all over the eastern seaboard, and even the intra-coastal waterway down to Florida. Lawrence was a member of the region’s finest sailing club, Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, and served, only a few years ago, as Chairman of its Cruising Club.

Lawrence Lally was a businessman and attorney, but he was also an accomplished sculptor and artist. His paintings adorn many locales, and his sculptures — of Ronald Reagan and Michael Collins — have been displayed at the Reagan Library and the Irish Dail (parliament). He loved writing since he was a child, and he always wrote — legal briefs, personal letters, or the Editorials and stories in this newspaper. Writing for him was a combination of a craft, labor of love, and a vocation, which he employed to express ideas and concepts with skill, feeling, precision, and a deep sense of historical perspective.

Above all, Lawrence Lally loved his family. His wife of fifty-eight years, Ute Wolff Lally, was his constant companion, and he delighted in her professional achievements as a Supreme Court Justice, and her personal achievements, like the Red Cross Swim-A-Cross which they started from their home. He adored his son, Grant Lally, a respected local attorney and publisher who recently ran for U.S. Congress; his daughter, Regan Lally, a successful local attorney and real estate developer, who lived just blocks away from him; and his son Craig Lally, an international businessman. Most of all, he relished his time with his grandchildren, Torin Aebly and Paige Aebly, who he saw nearly every day, and his newest baby grandchild Brahm Lally, only a few months old.

In his 80 years Lawrence Lally lived a richer, fuller, and more rewarding life than many.

There will be a Memorial Service held on Saturday, May 16, 2015, at Christ Church in Oyster Bay to commemorate our friend and colleague, Lawrence Lally.

We will all miss him.

Reprinted with permission of the North Shore Leader