Former State Supreme Court Justice Honored as Parade Grand Marshal

Former State Supreme Court Justice Honored as Parade Grand Marshal

Huntington’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place March 8 with the Honorable W. Gerard Asher leading the way as grand marshal. File photo by Sara-Megan Walsh

By Julianne Mosher

Decades after moving to Huntington with his family at 13, the Honorable W. Gerard Asher will lead the 86th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade down Main Street.

Huntington’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place March 8 with the Honorable W. Gerard Asher, above, leading the way as grand marshal.

“Huntington is a great community and it has been for many, many years,” he said.

Known locally as Jerry, the 78-year-old has been a proactive citizen in the town for more than six decades. A graduate of Huntington High School’s class of 1959, Asher was president of the senior class, captain of the championship football team and team captain of the basketball team — hobbies that still interest him today. 

“I like to attend the local high school sporting games,” he said. “I want to show my support because I played when I was a student there.”

Asher married his high school sweetheart, Sylvia, and they have been together for 56 years. He graduated from Princeton University in 1963, Cornell Law School in 1966 and then served two years in the U.S. Army as captain and commander of a Hawk missile battery in Korea.

When Asher came back to Long Island in 1969, he began practicing law with an emphasis in real estate, surrogate law, litigation and sports law for 36 years in Huntington.

“Huntington has great people,” he said. “All of my family still lives here. and I’ve made so many friends throughout the years.”

In 2004, Asher was elected to district court, where he tried numerous criminal matters and was the drug court judge for Suffolk County for two years. In 2010, he was elected justice of the state Supreme Court — a title he held up until he resigned in 2017 at age 76.

“I like to keep working,” he laughed. “I’m semiretired, but I like the idea of having something to do everyday.”

Asher said that throughout his time volunteering and working within Huntington, he was constantly told he should become grand marshal, but wasn’t able to as a sitting judge. 

Now it’s his time to shine. 

“I’m honored to have this bestowed onto me,” he said. “I’m moved by the whole thing, and I’m excited to be the Grand Marshal for the 86th Huntington St. Patrick’s Day Parade.”

Greg Kennedy, his good friend and past president of Division IV of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians, said that Asher was an immediate thought when the past grand marshals meet every year to decide who the next one will be.

“He’s a pillar to the community,” Kennedy said. “He’s someone that you would go to
for advice.”

While holding dozens of honors, titles and participating in plenty of philanthropy, Kennedy said that this is Asher’s time to represent Division IV. 

“It’s his time to lead us proudly down Main Street on March 8,” he said.

The Huntington St. Patrick’s Day Parade will begin at 2 p.m. in Huntington Village March 8, rain or shine. The parade runs along Route 110 beginning slightly north of Broadway and makes a left on Route 25A to end by St. Patrick’s R.C. Church.