What follows is a transcript from the Town to Newburgh Justice Court on September 27, 2022, with Newburgh Town Justice Richard Clarino presiding. It is dedicated to the memory of the late Orange County Court Judge Pano Z. Patsalos.

Good morning. I’d like to welcome everyone to the Town of Newburgh Justice Court.

Before we begin the proceedings, I’d like to take a moment to remember and dedicate this court session to the Honorable Pano Z. Patsalos who died on September 17, 2022 at the age of 93.

Judge Patsalos, whose photograph appears on the easel to my left, was a former judge of this court and of the Orange County Court. I am one of his successor judges here in the Town of Newburgh.

Judge Patsalos was born and grew up in downtown City of Newburgh, attended local schools, graduated from Newburgh Free Academy and then college from Seaton Hall University. He then served our country in the United States Army during the Korean Conflict. After he returned home he attended and graduated from Cornell University School of Law in 1957 and was admitted to the New York bar that same year.

After becoming a lawyer, Pano Patsalos practiced law here in Orange County for twenty-nine years. During the earlier portion of that time, he also served as a part-time Assistant District Attorney for Orange County. Back then all of the assistant district attorneys were part- time and also practiced law.

Judge Patsalos had a successful solo law practice and during that time period was honored by serving terms as president of both the Newburgh Bar Association and the Orange County Bar Association.

I first met Judge Patsalos over forty years ago in the early 1980s when I was an assistant district attorney handling cases in the local criminal courts. Judge Patsalos was a seasoned and well-respected attorney and would occasionally represent defendants in local criminal courts although his law practice was much broader than that.

I recall my impression of him at the time was that he was a competent, respectful and dignified attorney.
In 1986, Judge Patsalos’s judicial career began. The year before, Judge Thomas J. Byrne, one of the judges of this court for twenty-two years and whose photograph appears on our wall of judges to my right, was elected County Court Judge. When he took office in Goshen in 1986 it created a judicial vacancy here in the Town of Newburgh. Judge Patsalos was appointed to fill that vacancy but he served as judge here only one year because in 1986 there was an election to select another Orange County Court Judge. There were two county court judges at that time. In 1986 Judge Patsalos ran for and was elected county court judge.

His election was truly historic for Orange County and for the Town of Newburgh. For the first time in the history of Orange County and for a continuous period of eleven years, both Orange County Court judges, Judge Thomas J. Byrne and Judge Pano Z. Patsalos, were former judges of this court and residents of the Town of Newburgh. Judge Patsalos went on to serve as county court judge for thirteen years until he reached the mandatory retirement age of seventy in 1999.

It was no surprise to any of us in the legal community that all of the fine qualities Pano Patsalos possessed as a lawyer would continue when he sat on the bench in County Court. He had a reputation for being a very hard-working judge and was usually the first judge to arrive at the courthouse in the morning and the last one to leave in the evening. Although he had a law clerk to do his legal research and writing, Judge Patsalos was known to do much of his own legal research and writing and he worked hard, using his broad knowledge of the law to craft his decisions to get everything just right.
I personally appeared as a lawyer before Judge Patsalos on many occasions both here in the Town of Newburgh Justice Court and in Orange County Court in Goshen. I developed a great respect for him, as did other members of the Orange County legal community. He was articulate, dignified, reserved and non-arrogant; characteristics and qualities we all want and hope for in our judges. He was a tough judge when the circumstances required it: tough with defendants and with attorneys and held them accountable for their actions. But at the same time he was consistently fair to all sides and treated everyone who appeared before him with respect.

In addition to the commendable qualities Judge Patsalos had as a lawyer and a judge, his service to the community was widely known, particularly the services he rendered to his church and the members of the Greek community, over many, many years.

He was a proud father, grandfather and great-grandfather and, most of all was a deeply devoted husband to June Patsalos, his lovely wife of fifty-six years who expressed to me on the telephone last week that she lost her best friend.

When this court adjourns this afternoon at the conclusion of its session, it will do so in memory of the Honorable Pano Z. Patsalos, a skilled attorney, respected jurist, public servant, decent man of integrity and beloved member of our community.

May he rest in peace.