Harvey Levinson, longtime official in Nassau DA's office, county's last elected assessor, dies at 87

If the phone rang in Harvey B. Levinson’s office as he was walking out the door, he turned around and picked it up.

A longtime official in the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, the county’s last elected assessor and a former public defender, Levinson was a dedicated public servant who spent his career committed to improving the lives of others, said his family and colleagues.

"He really cared about his position and his ability to help people," said Randolph Yunker, 68, of upstate Saratoga, who served as Levinson’s spokesman while he was the county’s assessor. "He was one of the most honest people I’ve ever worked for."

Levinson died on May 18 after a lengthy illness, his wife said. He was 87.

Born in Brooklyn on May 16, 1939, Levinson graduated from Wantagh High School before earning a bachelor of science degree in economics and a master of business administration degree at New York University. While attending Georgetown Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he earned juris doctor and master of law degrees, he met his future wife, Gail. 

"It was love at first sight," Gail Levinson said.

The couple married in August 1965 and settled on Long Island, where Harvey Levinson grew up. They first lived in Hempstead and later raised their daughters — Kim and Mindy — in Rockville Centre before moving to Garden City.

Gail Levinson said her husband was genuine and believed strongly in his convictions. His purpose, she said, was helping others through his work.

"Harvey always did the right thing," she said. "That’s who he was at his core."

As a father and a husband, that dedication was also present. He made every effort to get home for dinner and was devoted to his family, especially his children, Gail Levinson said.

"We were a team," she said.

Harvey Levinson worked as a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society before his time at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, where he worked as a prosecutor. 

That is a jump not many lawyers make, said Fred Klein, who worked under Levinson in the district attorney’s office.

"It not only helped his perspective as a prosecutor, it was a benefit to the whole office," Klein said.

As a friend, Levinson was sincere and genuine. When he asked you how your weekend went, he listened, and he took an interest in those he was close with, Klein said.

"He didn’t have a bad bone in his body," Klein said.

Ed Grilli, who worked as a press secretary in the district attorney’s office, said one of Levinson’s passions was teaching the next generation of legal professionals.

"He trained, literally, over the years in the DA’s office, thousands of young prosecutors," Grilli said.

That instruction wasn’t just about case law and courtroom etiquette.

"More than just teaching them the law, he gave them a sense of fairness," said Grilli, of Merrick.

Those close to Levinson said he had an unshakable moral compass pointed in the direction of what he felt helped the people he was serving. He was a fierce competitor, they said, especially when he felt the public’s interest was at stake.

Levinson was elected the county’s assessor in 2003, serving from 2004 to 2008, after 25 years as a prosecutor and chief assistant to Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon.

As assessor, Levinson led a high-profile crackdown of illegal apartments on Long Island — reclassifying homes turned into illicit, cramped rooming houses as commercial real estate, driving up taxes for those properties and discouraging landlords from running the unpermitted operations.

He took policy positions that sometimes made him unpopular, including his proposals to revamp a county assessment system he saw as broken and unfair and his disapproval of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency’s "unprecedented granting of tax breaks to developers."

Levinson didn’t make decisions for political gain, Yunker said.

"He always looked at it as, ‘How can I help’?" Yunker said.

Levinson retired in 2008 and moved to Boca Raton, Florida.

After he retired, Levinson wrote a number of opinion pieces for Newsday.

In addition to his wife, Gail, he is survived by daughters Kim Greenfield (Mark Greenfield), of Westchester, and Mindy Levinson (Matthew Silver), of Florida; and grandchildren Noah and Ella Greenfield.

Services were held this week in Florida. 

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ