Sam Raudins is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the New York legal community is mourning the passing of Judge John G. Connor at the age of 90 on October 4. A native of Philmont, Connor served for more than two decades as a Supreme Court justice in New York’s Third Judicial District, which encompasses Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties, following his election in 1982 and in 1996. Connor's son, Hudson City Court Judge John Connor Jr., said his father found his place as a Supreme Court justice and stuck with it — something not many in his position do. “I think the thing about my dad was even though he was on the Supreme Court, he was still a humble guy,” Connor Jr. said. “He was one of those guys who always thought he was the underdog and always gave everybody a day in court.” After graduating from Philmont High School, Connor attended St. Michael’s College and went on to serve two years in the U.S. Army before he graduated from Albany Law School in 1957. He was admitted to the NY state bar and then founded the firm Connor, Millman & Connor with his father. Connor made local history in 1964 when he became the first Democrat to be elected district attorney in Columbia County in more than a century. After he retired from the bench in 2006, he returned to private practice with his son, John Jr. David Dellehunt, the judge's former law clerk, said, “He was a kind of a unique judge in the sense that he was a person that not only understood the law, but he also understood people, which is an important characteristic for a judge..." Connor Jr. said, “People realized he was just a guy who was there for the everyday man. He wasn’t some spokesman for the rich or things like that — he was just an everyday guy who was on the bench..." Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.