Norman Goodman in front of Manhattan Supreme Court in 2014. (Photo: Rick Kopstein/NYLJ)

Norman Goodman, who served for more than four decades as New York County clerk and who many Manhattanites recognize as the name emblazoned on their jury summonses, died on Thursday. He was 95.

In addition to county clerk, Goodman also served as commissioner of jurors, and during his 45-year reign he sent out more than 11 million jury summonses. And while his name likely got many of those recipients to start kvetching, those who worked with him closely say that Goodman was devoted to making prospective jurors more comfortable and more enthusiastic about performing their civic duty.

“He did a tremendous amount to improve the perception of the jury system so that New Yorkers would be encouraged to serve with enthusiasm,” said Mark Zauderer of Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer, who chaired a blue-ribbon commission on jury reform in New York on which  Goodman served.

Goodman, the son of a wholesale dairy distributor, was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut. He attended New York University back when it had a campus in the Bronx, but took a break from his education to serve in the U.S. Army for three years during World War II.

In 1947, he returned to New York to complete his undergraduate studies, then went on to obtain his law degree from NYU School of Law in 1950.

After graduation, he took a job with a Midtown law firm that would eventually be called Levey, Myers, Katz & Goodman and made partner by 1960. He went to work for the county clerk's office in 1966 and became county clerk in 1969. His salary was $14,000, Goodman told John Werner, the chief clerk for Manhattan Supreme Court, in a 2009 interview for an oral history for the Historical Society of the New York Courts.

Unlike the rest of the state, where county clerks are elected to terms, New York City's five county clerks are given lifetime appointments. Goodman's predecessor served for almost two decades and left the office when he was 80 years old.

But in Goodman's long tenure, he oversaw the transformation of the office from a largely paper-and-pen operation, back when jurors were picked from a punch card machine in the courthouse basement, to the era of electronic court records and e-filing.

After Chief Judge Judith Kaye became head of the state judiciary in 1993, Goodman took part in efforts to reform juries in New York. Among the changes implemented around that time, Werner said in an interview, was eliminating the time-honored practice of doling out jury-waivers to lawyers, doctors and other politically connected professionals with friends in high places, which Werner said had a considerable effect on the demographic composition of Manhattan juries.   

Werner said in an interview that Goodman was an intellectually curious sort who was especially interested in the histories of the court system and the Foley Square area, which sits near the old site of the Five Points tenements and where the Manhattan courthouse complex stands today, including the courthouse at 60 Centre St.

Frustrated that the New York City government wouldn't devote funds to make repairs to 60 Centre St., Goodman once led a group of prominent Manhattan attorneys to raise private funds to make improvements to the courthouse. That included the courthouse rotunda, which features a mural that, like much of the artwork around the courthouse, was completed as a Works Progress Administration project.

Goodman at the courthouse rotunda (Photo: Rick Kopstein/NYLJ)

Such murals also adorn the walls of the jury assembly room on the fourth floor of 60 Centre St., which was dubbed the Norman Goodman Jury Assembly Room.

Goodman retired at the end of 2014 and was succeeded in the position by Milton Adair Tingling, a former Manhattan judge.

Betty Weinberg Ellerin, a retired justice who served on the Appellate Division, First Department and who now works as senior counsel for Alston & Bird and was a friend of Goodman's for about a half-century, said that, from a judge's perspective, “there was only Norman Goodman and I hope others in his position aspire to follow his example.” 

Goodman is preceded in death by his wife, Penny. He is survived by his brother, Robert; his daughters, Susan and Nancy; and two grandchildren.

Goodman's funeral is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Plaza Jewish Community Chapel at 630 Amsterdam Ave., which is at the intersection with 91st Street.

Read more:

Goodman Leaves Behind a Rich History of Change

County Clerk Looks Beyond 'The Way We've Always Done Things'

New York County Clerk Retiring After 45 Years