Who

New York City legal icon Morgenthau has been Manhattan's District Attorney since 1975, making him the longest-serving D.A. in the city's history.

Backstory

The scion of a political family—his father was former Secretary of State Henry Morgenthau, Jr.—Robert (or "Bob" as he's known to friends and colleagues) grew up near Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Springwood Estate in Hyde Park and raced sailboats with JFK on Cape Cod. Morgenthau attended Amherst, served in WWII, and graduated from Yale Law before heading into private practice, spending 13 years in private practice at Patterson, Belknap & Webb. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed him U.S. Attorney for the Southern District in 1961. When Richard Nixon was elected, he pressured Morgenthau to step down; after initially resisting, Morgenthau relented and returned to private practice. Itching to go back to the public sector—and after briefly considering a run for governor—he decided to run for Manhattan District Attorney in 1974. He won. And he's held the gig ever since, last winning re-election in 2005 at the ripe old age of 86, beating out Leslie Crocker Snyder.

Of note

Although he's nearing his 90th birthday, Morgenthau still works a full schedule and continues to oversee some 500 assistant district attorneys, who handle every turnstile-jumper, mugger, rapist, and cop-killer brought to trial on the island of Manhattan. It's an enormous job, of course, and some have suggested in recent years he's too old to keep up with its demands. (Even the New York Times somewhat surprisingly endorsed Snyder in a 2005 editorial titled "When to End an Era.") But while other criticism has been leveled against him over the years—some have argued that Morgenthau has been too focused on white-collar crime and soft on street crime—whenever he does decide to step down, he'll walk away with plenty of career victories to keep him warm. In addition to training a generation of defense lawyers, judges, and prosecutors, Morgenthau helped bring down the corrupt bank BCCI, convict Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, and has presided over some of the most famous criminal prosecutions of the past half-century, including those of Mark David Chapman (who shot John Lennon), child-abuser Joel Steinberg, the rapists in the Central Park jogger case, and subway vigilante Bernie Goetz.

Medical file

Morgenthau has been deaf in his right ear since undergoing a childhood operation. The hearing in his left ear was damaged by gunfire when he served in the Navy during World War II.

On screen

Widely believed to be the inspiration for crotchety but loveable Law & Order D.A. Adam Schiff (played by Steven Hill), Morgenthau has said in the past that he's a fan of the show. He's visited the set and met the cast, although he also took the show to task for featuring a D.A. with a Southern accent, actor/politician Fred Thompson.

Pet cause

Morgenthau has been chairman of the board of Battery Park City's Museum of Jewish Heritage since it was founded in 1997. The Robert M. Morgenthau Wing of the museum opened in 2003.

Personal

A widower, Morgenthau has been married to his second wife, writer Lucinda Franks, since 1977. He is the father of seven, including Jenny Morgenthau, who is executive director of the Fresh Air Fund. He lives on East 86th Street, on the same block as Jenny.

True story

The only person who's been in the D.A.'s office longer than Morgenthau? His secretary, Ida Van Lindt, who has worked for him since 1974. Before that, she worked for his predecessor, Frank Hogan.

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