Jacob Kreshtool

1918 - 2017

Wilmington native Jacob Kreshtool passed away April 11, 2017, at his winter home in Luquillo, Puerto Rico, at the age of 98.

Born September 6, 1918 to Bertha Goberman and Isadore Kreshtool, Jacob was a graduate of Wilmington High School, the University of Delaware, and the University of Miami Law School. He served in the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in the North Atlantic during WWII and in Norfolk during the Korean War.

Mr. Kreshtool had a passion to protect those who had little voice or power. Kreshtool was a labor lawyer whose heart was always with the underdog. He championed civil rights, labor, and clean air when it was not popular to do so. He was an enthusiastic civil rights activist and a committed environmentalist, using his resources as a lawyer to defend the disenfranchised and, as President of the Delaware Citizens for Clean Air, to wage legal battles against polluting corporations.

Mr. Kreshtool ran as the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1988. With no hope of winning against a popular incumbent, he undertook his quixotic campaign solely to publicize the liberal take on Gov. Castle's agenda, especially concerning its negative impact on the environment and the public health.

He had a happy 62-year marriage, and was devoted to his wife Betty until her death in 2013. He was predeceased by his three siblings, Bernard, Louis, and Freida Barsky and is survived by his sisters-in-law Constance Kreshtool and Thelma Deitcher; his children, Laurie and Ken; and his nieces and nephews and their families.

Mr. Kreshtool's infectious sense of fun accompanied everything he did. From his provocative picket signs to his brave attempts at juggling, his wit, humor, skepticism toward authority, original and creative mind, enthusiasm for life, and childlike joy in simple pleasures will long be remembered.

Funeral services will be 12:30 pm, Friday, April 21, 2017 in the Chapel at the Jewish Community Cemetery, 401 Foulk Road, Wilmington, DE 19803. Shiva will be observed approximately 2:30 pm, Friday, April 21 at Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth Synagogue, 4412 Washington Boulevard, Wilmington, DE 19802.

Please send condolences in care of Schoenberg Memorial Chapel, 519 Philadelphia Pike, Wilmington, DE 19809 which will be forwarded to Mr. Kreshtool's children. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests telling a good story involving one of Jake's antics or adventures, or donating to the Natural Resources Defense Council (www.nrdc.org).

SCHOENBERG

MEMORIAL CHAPEL

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The News Journal on Apr. 20, 2017.

Memories and Condolences
for Jacob Kreshtool

Sponsored by Schoenberg Memorial Chapel Inc.

6 Entries

Tracey Rich

May 12, 2017

I was just telling a story about Jake and looked him up. So sad to hear he's gone. He was such a nice man and always had an amusing, TRUE story to tell.

Jim May

April 24, 2017

Jake was a wonder who cast a long shadow over injustice. He was a top-shelf advocate with pinpoint accuracy on the human condition. He was an early friend of the Environmental Law Clinic at Widener University, pushing for environmental improvement, governmental accountability and human dignity. But mostly, I remember his smile, voice and wit in light of life's wonder, too. He saw divine comedy in the absurd, and managed to measure others kindly along the way.
--Jim May

Karl Haller

April 22, 2017

I'm an old Sussex County lawyer. In the 1970's all the Sussex lawyers used to drive to Wilmington for the annual Bench & Bar event. At one of those events I had the good fortune to sit at a table with Jake - his wit and exuberance lifted everyone within earshot!

Alan Mann

April 20, 2017

Jake was probably one of my father's best friends in high school and college. Here are some anecdotes.

Jake and Gil (Dad) once tried to hitchhike from Delaware to Cape Cod, but ran out of money in Connecticut, and had to turn back.

The two of them were on the staff of the Review at the University of Delaware, Jake as Editor, Gil as a reporter. Their pseudonyms all used the last name O'Malley. They published the Review each day during the Great Beer Drought, where men of legal age were forbidden to buy alcoholic beverages when an old law from the 1850's was re-enforced. The motto of the campaign was, "Beer by Midyears." Man-On-The-Street interviews were "conducted" by the staff, all with the enormous O'Malley family, such as I.Rate O'Malley.
The law was rescinded. This was in the Fall of 1938. Jake led the charge. While he was editor, Jake used the paper as a bully pulpit for positive political change and equity.

Jake and Gil nearly got thrown out of UD one time when they got onto the balconies at Old College and mimed Mussolini while the ROTC cadets were drilling in the courtyard below.

After World War II, cars were scarce, but my father managed to get one. Jake and his brothers were constantly hiring Dad as their chauffer. The price was right at $0.00.

In the early 1950's, Jake got my father into sailing Lightnings, 19 foot long racing sloops. We have a picture of my father's boat taken by Jake on the Northeast River.

Jake would call law, "The Lawyer Business." He said his profession was highly rewarding, as it had the power to change things for the better under the law.

He honored my father, calling him, "the last gentleman I ever met." It takes one to know one, Mr. Kreshtool. Fair winds and following seas, Sir!

David Drexler

April 20, 2017

Judie joins me in conveying our sincere condolences upon Jake's passing. Although we were courtroom adversaries on a number of occasions, I felt we were friends and I deeply admired the zeal he brought to his clients' causes even as I was pointing out how misplaced it often was.
I first met Jake when I came to Delaware in 1958 as a law clerk in the Federal District Court, then located in cramped quarters above the Post Office in Rodney Square. Chief Judge Leahy had recently retired and was in the process of vacating his office. There were stacks of bound law reports in the corridor waiting to be discarded. Jake, in the court on some matter, inquired about them, and said that he had just opened his own office and might find a use in his practice for some of the books. Judge Leahy generously told him to take whatever books he felt he could use and Jake hauled them away
A few weeks later Judge Leahy had amassed another pile of old law books to be discarded and asked me to get in touch with the young lawyer who had taken books earlier. I called Jake, who came in, took one look and said breezily, "No thanks, they're the wrong color."
I'm writing of this incident in the hope that it might provide an amusing moment in your time of sorrow. My memory of it is reflective of the fond regard in which I always hold Jake. Again our sincere condolences, Dave Drexler

Bill Betty

April 20, 2017

Mr Kreshtool taught me fifty years ago, and I feel privileged to have known him...what a great human being.

Showing 1 - 6 of 6 results