The Honorable Stephen R. Sirkin, 80, died Wednesday (January 15, 2020) at about 3 p.m. at his home on Pine Ridge Drive in Newark.

Born on October 15, 1939 in Newark, Steve was a 1957 graduate of Newark High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Colgate University. After receiving his law degree from Syracuse University in 1964,  he served as an FBI Special Agent in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and New York.

Steve left the F.B.I. in 1968,  returning to Newark to practice law. In 1971, Steve was elected Wayne County District Attorney serving until 1989. He was then elected as a Wayne County Judge and served from 1990 till his retirement in 2009. Stephen was also an appointed Supreme Court Justice and during his career presiding over cases in fourteen counties.

“I worked for and with Steve for almost 40 years. In private practice together and as an Assistant DA in the 80s, and as DA with him as judge for 20 years. I can best describe Steve as a “character” and I mean that in a good way. He was probably the brightest attorney I have ever known, but his style in the courtroom was such that he usually did not endear himself to the attorneys who appeared before him. He resolved cases quickly by pretty much silencing the lawyers. In the end though, he was fair and his decisions were on the mark. He was very good to me over the years and I will miss him,” said friend former DA and current Wayne County Judge Rick Healy.

Current Wayne County District Attorney Mike Calarco remembers Steve well. “ Judge Sirkin was one of the brightest legal minds I have had the honor of working with. I will never forget how he reached out to me during my election and offered his advice and wisdom. My deepest sympathy goes out to his family.”

“The “Judge” was a friend for many years. I will always remember him for the stories he use to tell.  He never lost sight of his purpose, to uphold the law and base his decisions on facts.  I use to call him the “Master Mechanic” of the state court System.  He would get calls from of the Chief Justices in Albany when they would have large backlogs in other counties and he would travel there and clean up cases. He loved to travel, loved his garden and especially his old ford tractor. He was an exceptional FBI Agent, District Attorney, and County Judge. He taught me a lot and I will miss him dearly,” said former Wayne County Sheriff Dick Pisciotti..

Friend and reporter Louise Hoffman Broach knew Steve for 35 years. “I first met him as a very young reporter. He hated reporters, first thing he said to me was “No comment!” and I said, how can you say that, I haven’t even asked you anything!” and we sort of took it from there.

“He did my wedding, one of only like 4 he did when he was a judge.  Incidentally he came to my house in Savannah to do my wedding on a bitterly cold January day. I remember signing the marriage licence on the washing machine in my laundry room.

He and I were both Jewish in a county with about 5 Jewish people, so I think that there was a bond there too. He told me, “Never work on Yom Kippur.” We went to services at the temple in Geneva a few times on the High Holy Days. He went to Israel a few more times than I did, he went during a time of conflict, and I had gone during the first Gulf War and he was the only one who didn’t think I was nuts.

When he retired from the bench, he didn’t want me to interview him, so I wrote about him anyway, for the Wayne Star, and he loved it, sent me a note afterward.

He never wanted to talk about his “Mississippi Burning” days, although he did share a little about it with me ... he often told me I was a pain in the ass, but I know that he respected me,” Louise recalled.

Steve was one of the agents investigating the disappearance of three civil rights workers in June of 1964. The investigation was met with hostility by the town’s residents, local police, and the Ku Klux Klan. At the request of President Lyndon Johnson,  the F.B.I. opened a new field office in Jackson, Mississippi and U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent in scores of agents to investigate the case. Agents eventually discovered the bodies of the three civil rights activists. The case made national headlines, was turned into a book and eventually the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning.

In a 2010 novel called “Killer Twins” by Michael Benson, the author wrote about Judge Sirkin, in his role as the judge for the Spahalski murder trial, Judge Sirkin “would see to it that evidence was presented in a lightning-quick fashion.” Benson explained that: “Acting supreme court justice Stephen R. Sirkin ...had a reputation for being no-nonsense and a stickler for a tight schedule.  Sirkin was a Wayne County judge but had for many years been semi-regularly “borrowed” by the Monroe County Court Administration to clean up a backlog,” according to Benson.