Leo Gold, journalist who became a Stamford lawyer, dies at 96

Leo Gold, a Fairfield County journalist who switched careers to become an attorney with a five-decade law career, passed away on May 7 at the age of 96.

Born in Brooklyn, Gold became a Stamford resident at six months old when his parents relocated to the city in 1927 to open a grocery store. He joined the U.S. Army in 1945 after graduating from high school and was sent to postwar Germany in December 1945 to provide assistance for Holocaust survivors. After his military service, he attended New York University and received a degree in journalism.

Gold”™s media career included work as a reporter with the Stamford radio station WSTC and as Stamford bureau chief for the Bridgeport Sunday Herald. He opted to refocus his career to the legal profession and graduated from New York School of Law in 1960. After an initial stretch in private practice, he teamed with Stamford attorney Isadore Mackler in a law firm partnership that lasted until Mackler”™s death in 2002. Gold later joined the law firm of Benjamin and Gold, where he served of counsel until his retirement when he was in his mid-80s.

Outside of his professional responsibilities, Gold was active as president of the Stamford Jewish Center during the 1970s and served as a director of the Mackler 460 Foundation, which provided more than $1 million in scholarships to students at Connecticut colleges and universities.

Photo courtesy of Legacy.com