Hundreds of mourners and a slew of city dignitaries turned out Tuesday to bid a final farewell to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, who died last week at the age of 86.
Family, friends, judges, attorneys, colleagues and city officials packed into the Reform Temple of Forest Hills following a poignant funeral procession from Queens County Criminal Court — where Brown worked for nearly three decades — roughly a mile away.
Brown — New York City’s longest-serving district attorney, who held the position for 28 years — “made a difference, a profound difference” to the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio told the sea of mourners.
“When we celebrate our progress as a city, he is one of the architects of that progress. When we think how much we have changed for the better, he was one of those change-makers,” the mayor said.
“He changed our city deeply by his presence, by his example, by his leadership and all that will be sorely missed.”
De Blasio called Brown “an innovator” who pushed for the Queens DA’s Office and many others in the criminal justice system to focus more on domestic violence and hate crimes, and to do more to stand up for victims’ rights.
Other dignitaries attending the service included former Mayors Mike Bloomberg and David Dinkins, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan DA Cy Vance and Bronx DA Darcel Clark.
Before the service got underway, hundreds gathered in front of Queens County Criminal Court, where court officers wearing their dress blues lined the sidewalk and bagpipers played “Amazing Grace” as a hearse carrying Brown’s coffin — draped in the city’s flag — paused before heading to the synagogue.
There, retired Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy described Brown as a “real gentleman” who was “very knowledgeable of the law.”
“He was a great man,” Hanophy said, adding, “The best DA I ever knew.”
During the service, attorney Robert Tucker, a longtime friend of Brown’s, told the room of mourners that Brown “would love this.”
He recalled the DA calling him on Sept. 1 to ask if he was watching late Sen. John McCain’s funeral service.
“He said, ‘Turn it on. It’s a great blueprint for what I want,'” Tucker told the laughing crowd, adding, “I think we pulled off the New York City version of the McCain funeral.”
Brown’s son-in-law, attorney Bruce Foodman, also spoke during the service and said that although Brown “had a certain formality about him here in Queens, on the weekend when he made the trip to Connecticut, he simply became a dad, father-in-law, husband and grandpa – roles that I can tell you he enjoyed as much as being the Queens district attorney.”
Foodman, who is married to Brown’s daughter Lynn, told mourners that Brown “never compromised his values in order to reach his goals.”
Brown passed away Friday at the Meadow Ridge assisted-living facility in Redding, Conn., surrounded by his wife of nearly six decades, Rhoda, his three children, Karen, Todd and Lynn, and two granddaughters, Leah and Alana.
Alana is a West Point cadet and Leah will start her first year at West Point in September.
The longtime prosecutor, who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease, announced in March that he would step down from his post on June 1.
He checked into the Connecticut facility after falling at his home.
