JOHN ZUCCOTTI

ZUCCOTTI--John Eugene,

died Thursday, November 19 at age 78, from complications following a heart attack, at New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. Born June 23, 1937 in Greenwich Village, he was the eldest child of Italian immigrants; his father Angelo Zuccotti was the longtime maitre d' at the El Morocco. John attended St. Joseph's Academy on Washington Square Park and La Salle Military Academy in Oakdale, Long Island, followed by Princeton University. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army and then graduated from Yale Law School in 1962. During a summer internship in the office of Senator Jacob Javits, John met Susan Sessions; they married in 1963 and remained devoted for 52 years. John's long professional life began in Venezuela, where he served as an urban planning consultant, and in Washington DC, where he worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1970, John and Susan moved to the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, where they have lived ever since. John worked under Mayor John Lindsay as a commissioner for the New York City Planning Commission and later as its chairman. In 1975, he served as First Deputy Mayor under Abraham Beame, a position he held throughout the city's fiscal crisis. He became a founding member of the firm Tufo, Johnston, & Zuccotti in 1978. In 1985, he joined the real estate firm Olympia & York, shepherding it through its recapitalization as Brookfield Financial Properties. More recently, John balanced positions at Brookfield Asset Management and the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges along with work as the Chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York and board appointments at Columbia University, the New York Blood Center, the Doris Duke Foundation and others. Following the events of 9/11, he worked tirelessly and with great vision to restore Lower Manhattan, serving with the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation and on the boards of the September 11 Memorial Museum and the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center. A lifelong New Yorker, John was immensely proud of his service to the city he loved so much. A man of fierce intelligence with a passion for history and literature, John challenged those who cared for him to embrace the world with the same boundless energy with which he lived. His appetite for adventure was limitless; he loved to travel, ski, fish, and especially to hunt. He was deeply attached to the waters of Accabonac Harbor in Springs, NY and to the Green Mountains of Vermont. John was an unfailingly devoted husband and brother, a wise and loving father and grandfather, and a charismatic and generous friend who loomed large in the lives of all he touched. John is survived by his wife Susan; daughter Gianna and her husband David Weinstock, and their children Sophie, Noah and Lia; son Andrew and his wife Margaret Mauran Zuccotti, and their children Nicholas, Emma and Robert; daughter Milena and her husband Jason Merwin, and their children Cassie and Lily; brother Andrew and his wife Trish and their children. He leaves behind a large and loving family and innumerable friends. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn; the New York Blood Center; or the Group for the East End/Accabonac Protection Committee in Bridgehampton, NY. A memorial service will be announced. John was impossible to forget. He was loved and will be missed.