By Laura Lane
The father of Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg, and a resident of East Meadow for the past 47 years, Julian died on Nov. 28 of undisclosed causes. He was 76.
Julian was born in Brooklyn in 1931, attended Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn College before enlisting in the Army during the Korean War. He served in the Army from 1953 to 1954, having finished basic training just before the Korean War ended.
After an honorable discharge, he attended Brooklyn Law School on the G.I. bill. He was admitted to the bar in 1957. After marrying Daisy Lerea in December of 1956, he moved from Brooklyn to East Meadow. The birth of the couple's second son, Seth, was bittersweet. Julian and Daisy's first son, Starr, died shortly after Seth's birth of sudden infant death syndrome. Julian raised three children, Seth, Dave and Deborah, in a modest split-level home in East Meadow.
A single practitioner, he did not have a staff to aid him in his law practice. Even though it became fashionable to specialize and join a big firm, Denenberg refused. Instead, he maintained his own small practice and practiced in all areas of law.
While the Denenberg children were young, Daisy decided to go back to school to become a psychiatrist. Julian supported her efforts. Each evening, he returned home to watch the children while his wife attended night school.
Dave remembered his father as someone who not only "loved life, but loved his life." Remarking that his father's life was "very typical of those born during the Depression, coming of age in World War II and then moving to suburbia," Dave added that his father was unique in many ways. "He truly didn't worry about what other people thought," Dave said. "He just did what was right and was confident in that. All of his children and grandchildren noted that he was most happy with family, whether it was the holidays, going out to eat or going away together."
Seth remembered that his father had "an incredible wealth of knowledge and thoroughly enjoyed learning as much as possible about as many different topics as possible."
And Deborah marveled at the commitment that her father shared with her mother. "My parents had a 50-year love affair. They had a unique relationship in their way of communicating and understanding each other, more than you can imagine," she said.
Julian is survived by his wife, Daisy; sons, Seth and Dave; daughter, Deborah, and six grandchildren.
