Murray Seeman (July 7, 1914 – October 14, 2017) was an American lawyer and real estate developer on Long Island, New York. He was known for his contributions to the community as Mayor of Great Neck Estates, as a World War II veteran and a Biblical scholar. Seeman entered the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in 1942, serving in the Quartermaster Corps with the 6th Port Headquarters in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, Italy and France during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. His military specialty was Army Exchange Officer. He served as a judge for a Summary Military Court of the Allied Military Government Court in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy appointed by Lt. Col. Kincaid in 1944 and as a trial advocate and defense attorney. The 6th Port was awarded the Meritorious Service Plaque for Superior Performance In Control and Execution of its Port Missions, 1945. A clip from Seeman's NSTV Veterans History Story interview filmed in 2009 was included in a compilation program of World War II veteran stories that was nominated for a New York Emmy in the Military Program category in 2013. On November 7, 2020, the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Veterans History Project The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center (commonly known as the Veterans History Project) was created by the United States Congress in 2000 to collect and preserve the firsthand remembrances of U.S. wartime ...

20th Anniversary Event Celebration live-streamed a song performance with an introduction by Mark Sweeney, Principal Deputy Librarian featuring Murray Seeman's quote from the NSTV on-camera interview.

Early life and education

Seeman was born on July 7, 1914, to a Jewish family in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, the son of Dora (née Schachter) and Benjamin, both of Hungarian descent. He was the eldest of three children, with two sisters, Florence and Shirley. Seeman was an avid reader of the Sentinel's The Sabbath Angel Young Folks' Page Riddle Box, conducted by Judith Ish-kishor, corresponding with answers to the puzzles and charades. Seeman graduated from Boys’ High School in Brooklyn, 1931. He attended

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

where he and Sylvia Lopotkin, student council representatives, arranged the first semi-annual declamation contest conducted by Brooklyn College in the Brooklyn Law School Auditorium. New York Supreme Court Justice

John MacCrate John MacCrate (March 29, 1885 in Dumbarton, Scotland – June 9, 1976 in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York) was a lawyer, a politician, serving as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from New York (state), New York, ...

, Vida R. Sutton, speech director of the

National Broadcasting Company The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, and Professor Joseph Mosher of

City College City college may refer to: In the United States * Community college, a type of educational institution sometimes called a ''junior college'' or a ''city college'' in the United States * City College of New York ** 137th Street – City College (IR ...

were the judges. More than 300 persons heard eight finalists deliver selections. In 1933, Alfred Giardino, Capt. and Murray Seeman were the representatives of the Brooklyn College Varsity Debating Team in a series of debates defeating

Rutgers College Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

Rider College Rider University is a private university in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. It consists of four academic units: the Norm Brodsky College of Business, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Education and Human Services, and West ...

, and

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

on upholding the affirmative of the question "Resolved: That Soviet Russia should be officially recognized by the U.S. Government", the negative of the question "Resolved: That the Interallied War Debts be Cancelled by the United States", and the negative on the cancellation of

War debts War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. History Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history. R ...

by the United States, respectively. The Brooklyn College student council awarded silver keys to Seeman and Giardino. In the college election, Murray Seeman, along with Henry Helbraun and Jacob Seigfreid were elected to head the upper juniors. In 1934, Seeman received a BA from Brooklyn College and was voted "most likely to succeed" in his class. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, he worked two jobs while attending Columbia Law School, where he graduated with a J.D. in 1937.

World War II

In 1941, Murray Seeman was inducted into the U.S. Army. He attended Officer Candidate School and Quartermaster training at Camp Lee, Virginia, graduating on July 3, and commissioned

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the US Army. Seeman was transferred from Camp Lee to Fort Hamilton, in Brooklyn, where he joined the 6th Port Headquarters, an Army unit, under the command of R. Hunter Clarkson, that he would stay with until the end of the War. The 6th Port was a transportation unit, responsible for the movement of troops and supplies, loading and unloading the ships and looking after the troops from the ports. The 6th Port worked ports in

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, and Naples, where they looked after 50,000 troops. In an interview filmed by NSTV, Seeman recounted loading the troops of the First Division, known as the Big Red One, onto the Queen Mary on its wartime voyage to England. The following day, November 2, 1942, the 6th Port departed the Brooklyn Navy Yard on a Swedish flatbottom crossing the ocean for ten days towards an undisclosed location. The 6th Port arrived in the harbor of Morocco, North Africa during the Battle of Casablanca, waiting in a convoy of a hundred ships for the Battle to be over before they could be brought in to land on November 18, 1942. The 6th Port continued their mission with the United States Fifth Army leaving Casablanca by train with 2–3 days in Iran, arriving Naples in October 1943. While in Naples, the Fifth Army, headed by

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Mark W. Clark, fought the

Battle of Monte Cassino The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino, was a series of four assaults made by the Allies against German forces in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The ultimate objective was ...

, fifteen miles away. During his service in Naples, Seeman served as the defense lawyer for 25 soldiers in a military court trial. He tried the case and won, returning a not guilty verdict. Seeman's argument for the defense centered around the

legal principle A legal doctrine is a framework, set of rules, procedural steps, or test, often established through precedent in the common law, through which judgments can be determined in a given legal case. A doctrine comes about when a judge makes a ruling ...

presumption of innocence The presumption of innocence is a legal principle that every person accused of any crime is considered innocent until proven guilty. Under the presumption of innocence, the legal burden of proof is thus on the prosecution, which must present com ...

in the American criminal justice system, which confirmed his belief in the

American legal system The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as v ...

. Thirty-eight of Murray Seeman's relatives were killed during

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

In 2020, Murray Seeman's World War II Collection of video interviews, photos and letters were donated by his daughter,

Roxanne Seeman Roxanne Joy Seeman is an American songwriter and lyricist. She is best known for her songs by Billie Hughes, Philip Bailey, Phil Collins, Earth, Wind & Fire, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, The Sisters of Mercy, The Jacksons, Jacky Cheung, and in ...

to the Veterans History Project at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington. D.C.

Veterans History Project 20th Anniversary Celebration Event

On November 7, 2020, as part of the Veterans History Project 20th Anniversary Celebration Event, the Library of Congress live-streamed her song tribute performance "In Love And War" with an introduction by Mark Sweeney, Principal Deputy Librarian featuring a videoclip quote from Murray Seeman and dedicating it to the veterans of the Greatest Generation and their legacies. Murray Seeman donated a flag previously flown over the United States Military Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia, where 2,841 American military personnel are buried, for a Memorial Day parade in 2012. The flag was presented to him by the director of the Cemetery in Tunisia on a visit after the war, as Seeman participated in the invasion of Morocco .

Career

Seeman practiced law for three years before he was drafted to serve in the US Army June 5, 1941. After serving in World War II, Seeman worked as an attorney in private practice and as a real estate developer. He served on the NY State Pension & Retirement Commission under Governor

Hugh Carey Hugh Leo Carey (April 11, 1919 – August 7, 2011) was an American politician and attorney. He was a seven-term U.S. representative from 1961 to 1974 and the 51st governor of New York from 1975 to 1982. He was a member of the Democratic Party. ...

Mayor, Great Neck Estates & community service

As mayor of Great Neck Estates, Murray Seeman was one of the first community leaders to take a stand against

nuclear proliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as " Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Wea ...

. In 1975, Great Neck Estates was one of the earliest communities to enact a local ordinance to remove pollution on private and public property caused by dogs, a law passed three years later as the

Pooper-scooper A pooper-scooper, or poop scoop, is a device used to pick up animal feces from public places and yards, particularly those of dogs. Pooper-scooper devices often have a bag or bag attachment. 'Poop bags' are alternatives to pooper scoopers, and ar ...

Law in New York State. Among his pursuits, he was an advocate for environmental protection, the prevention of dumping in the Long Island Sound, the ecology of

Udalls Cove Udalls Cove is a marshland and wetland area located in Queens, New York City, off Little Neck Bay between Douglaston and Little Neck Bay.Article, Ames, Charlotte. "Teenagers Spark Campaign To Save Udalls Cove Marsh." December 5, 1969, Memory Book ...

and the restriction of offshore hunting. President, Jamaica-Richmond Hill Civic League, 1955 Trustee for the Village of Great Neck Estates, 1967 to 1974 Mayor, Village of Great Neck Estates, 1975 to 1983 President of the Great Neck Estates Civic Association and the Great Neck Lawyer's Club. North Shore Archeological Society, co-founder (NSAS) with Norma Kershaw. He wrote articles and lectured on the bible and archeology.

Recognition

The 6th Port was Awarded the Meritorious Service Plaque for Superior Performance In Control and Execution of its Port Missions, 1945

New York State Bar Association The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice ...

Award of Merit, 1985 New York Emmy nomination, World War II Veterans Stories program, Military Program, on-camera contributor, 2013 Lifetime Achievement, Brooklyn College, 2014 Senate resolution upon the occasion of Murray Seeman's 100th Birthday, 2015 Community Service Award, Great Neck Chamber of Commerce, 2015

Personal life and death

Seeman was married Lee née Sachs, Town Councilwoman of North Hempstead from 2005 - 2021 and appointed by

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

to serve on the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. Seeman died on October 14, 2017, at 103 of natural causes in Great Neck, New York.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seeman, Murray 1914 births 2017 deaths United States Army officers People from Great Neck, New York American real estate businesspeople American people of Czech-Jewish descent American centenarians 21st-century American Jews Brooklyn College alumni Columbia Law School alumni United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps Jewish American military personnel United States Army personnel of World War II Lawyers from New York City New York (state) lawyers People from Brooklyn 20th-century American lawyers Jewish American attorneys Men centenarians