Anthony Monteleone”™s life is a biography of service and accomplishment: U.S. Navy captain; 30-plus years as an attorney in private practice in Mount Kisco; and a driving force behind the remade Mount Kisco Public Library, which will open mid-September.
Monteleone goes by Tony ”“ only his mother called him Anthony. He enjoys fly-fishing and recently matched wits with bonefish in the Caribbean. His Catholic Brooklyn high school has closed, but he and other alumni have formed a foundation to help needy students get the same Jesuit education from which they benefited at schools across New York state.
It”™s enough to wonder where to begin to tell his story, but it is Monteleone who distills his own life to its most important focus and who suggests during a rainy afternoon in his Mount Kisco law offices the perfect place to begin: “My deceased wife Helen.” She passed away in 2003. “She was a great lady.” They raised three sons, including Gregory, a principal in the Monteleone and Monteleone law firm, and a daughter; nine grandchildren followed. He continues: “If you want to mention anything personal about me, the most important thing to me is my family.”
Monteleone”™s law firm is in a historic building with a deed ”“ framed in the conference room ”“ dating to the 1790s. He points to it and to other artifacts that lend the office its legal character, including a rosewood-inlaid-on-oak desk that Charles Ticknor brought to the office in 1910 when he founded the firm. That firm, Ticknor & Ticknor Esqs., has since 1976 borne the Monteleone name. As a presence in Mount Kisco, Monteleone says the firm reaches back five generations, counting Ticknor clients who have remained Monteleone clients. And, “We have a lot of second- and third-generation clients who have come on since I took over in 1976.” In a nod to history, the Monteleone letterhead lists the address as The Ticknor Building, 19 N. Moger Ave.
The firm handles real estate law, wills, trusts and estates, elder law and “civil litigation with an emphasis on negligence.”
Monteleone is a College of the Holy Cross and Fordham Law School graduate. At 74, he appears so completely at home among his office”™s oak trim and row upon row of law books as to define the consummate, thoughtful lawyer. He”™s a stocky man who speaks confidently in perfectly crafted sentences; no thoughts drift into ellipses. He looks very much like a man who would not let all those law books push him around. Rather, he appears very quietly to be their master, by dint certainly of intellect, but he”™s an imposing presence, too.
But you”™d expect that ”“ he is a Navy captain (retired), after all. The rank comes with something of a history and Monteleone ”“ even leaning forward he keeps his shoulders square ”“ clearly carries the captaincy tradition with honor and, at least to appearances, with ease, which is something a person wants in his or her lawyer or ship”™s captain.
It is altogether appropriate that Monteleone”™s efforts with the library will introduce for many decades to come the likes of lawyer Atticus Finch to the community. A peek at the dark side of captaining will be available in “The Sea Wolf.” Young Pip of “Great Expectations,” too, will have a home, along with the book”™s mysterious lawyer, Mr. Jaggers.
The library will offer big spaces, smaller conference rooms and the Kathleen and Granger Tripp Reading Room, made possible by a gift from the Tripps”™ five children who have left the region, but who remain committed to the library, as their parents had been. A public meeting room abuts a terrace and could be rented out for income. There will be a butterfly garden. A children”™s reading room will feature a large artificial tree to enhance storytelling hours. Both heating and cooling are geothermal.
State Sens. Vincent Leibell and Adam Bradley have been “instrumental in getting education and construction grants,” according to Monteleone, and the community has floated a $1.5 million bond toward the project.
“What we”™re making here is an important gathering place for all different ages,” Monteleone says, touring the facility. “All social and economic backgrounds can come here with one common purpose: to read and to learn. We hope this will make everyone”™s life better.”
The Web site to help is mtklibraryfoundation.org.
