Life after the robe and gavel
Judge Stanley Smolkin reflects on his career
After 18 years on the bench as a Long Beach City Court Judge, Stanley Smolkin plans to spend his retirement traveling and catching up on his honey-do list.
“Right now I’m just trying to figure out what I’m doing,” said Smolkin, who began his retirement on Jan. 1. “I’m trying to tie up a lot of loose ends and see where I go.”
A former golfer, carpenter and painter, Smolkin, 66, figures he might pick up his old hobbies and do some volunteer work. With his son Matt and his family living in Montana, the former judge is considering buying a home in the area for long vacations. Smolkin’s younger son, Mark, lives in Virginia.
At City Hall last week, Smolkin said that while he remains busy, he faces a period of adjustment after working for so long. He continues to wake up early on weekends, ready to pick up the phone to call the Police Department for a list of scheduled arraignments. Even during the first few days of his retirement he was called to City Court to sign paperwork.
After graduating from Brooklyn Law School in 1967, Smolkin joined the military and spent a year at Fort Jackson, S.C., before being deployed to Vietnam for a year. After completing his tour, he took a job with the Internal Revenue Service before leaving to open his own law practice.
He settled in the Canals of Long Beach with his wife, Joyce, in 1973, and his son’s Little League coaches persuaded him to run for City Council in 1987. He was elected to two terms as a city councilman before being appointed to city court in July 1991. He won a full 10-year term in the November election that year.
“Things in life just happen,” Smolkin mused when asked if he ever considered taking on a judgeship.
“You look back and say, ‘How’d I end up here?’”
He announced that he would not seek re-election early last year, and was replaced by Republican candidate Frank Dikranis, who won the vacant seat against Democrat Scott Nigro last November. “One day you wake up and say maybe you want to smell the roses while you can still stand,” Smolkin laughed.
