Jacob Kreshtool

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.

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

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!

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...

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...

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