While in Israel Gov. Hochul learns of death of her 87-year-old father
Gov. Kathy Hochul visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Credit: AP/Shlomi Amsalem
Gov. Kathy Hochul met with a wounded soldier Wednesday night in Israel, hours after she learned that her 87-year-old father, an inspiration for her political career, had died in Florida.
The governor’s father, John “Jack” Courtney, was the son of Irish Catholic immigrants who worked as domestics to get a foothold in America. Courtney was a talented Gaelic football player and worked at Bethlehem Steel near their Buffalo home while taking college classes and supporting union causes.
He graduated from Canisius College, then took a risk to join a startup with friends who worked at IBM Corp. The computer-related business succeeded and allowed Hochul to attend Syracuse University and Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C.
“My parents were very political,” Hochul told the Irish Central newspaper in 2022. “They were in their twenties and young activists with a family. They were (President John F.) Kennedy Democrats, and we grew up in a Catholic household devoted to social justice. My parents protested the Vietnam War. We had uncles serving over there, but they wanted them home because they thought the cause was not right.”
Hochul learned of her father’s death of a brain hemorrhage while she was on the last day of her two-day visit to Israel to meet with officials and victims of the attacks that ignited the Israel-Hamas war.
She visited the Western Wall, a holy site, in the Old City of Jerusalem as her staff offered their sympathies and support.
She read a handwritten note that referred to Israel in its time of great sorrow as well as her father’s death. She appeared to wipe away a tear as she slipped the note into a crack in the ancient limestone.
Later, Hochul stopped at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a holy site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. She knelt and prayed.
She visited a hospital that is treating the injured from the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and told a wounded 21-year-old soldier: “You’re strong, and the people who you saved may never know who you are, but I will know you saved people at their greatest time of desperation.”
Before leaving Israel on Thursday, Hochul told reporters, “It’s obviously been a life-changing experience for me to come into a war zone so quickly after the assault, the attack, the massacre. We were literally one mile from the Gaza border. You could hear rockets, smoke in the air.”
Editor‘s note -- An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported John Courtney‘s age.
Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.
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