NEW YORK—Former New York State governor Mario Cuomo died Thursday at age 82 from natural causes, hours after his son, current governor Andrew Cuomo, was sworn in to his second term and gave an inaugural address that paid tribute to his father.
He passed away due to heart failure, while at home with his family. The elder Cuomo had been hospitalized at the beginning of December for a heart condition. Andrew Cuomo had postponed his swearing in at Albany on Wednesday, opting to stay in New York City, closer to his father.
Mario Cuomo had grown up in South Jamaica, Queens where his Italian immigrant family owned a grocery store. He played baseball in college and then professionally until an injury to the head. After his baseball career ended, he then attended law school, where he tied for valedictorian. He was rejected by several law firms, due to prejudice against Italian-Americans at the time, wrote former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes in a 2011 book.
He went into private practice of law for 18 years and taught as an adjunct professor at the St. John’s University for ten years at the same time.
Cuomo first came to public prominence in 1972 when he was appointed by then mayor John Lindsay to mediate a controversy that had arisen over a proposed low-income housing project in affluent predominantly Jewish neighborhood Forest Hills, in Queens.
In 1974, Cuomo ran for lieutenant governor of New York but was defeated. Instead, he was appointed and served as Secretary of State for New York in 1975. He then ran for mayor in 1977 but was defeated by Ed Koch.
In 1978, Cuomo’s second bid for lieutenant governor succeeded.
Cuomo ran for governor in 1982 and won. In 1984, he became known as a gifted orator when he gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.
A devout Roman Catholic, Cuomo gave another acclaimed speech at the University of Notre Dame in the same year discussing the divisions between church and state and his support of abortion despite his religiosity, among other issues.
