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1-516-741-6565~John F. English, a national, state and Long Island Democratic leader for many years, died yesterday of liver cancer at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, L. I. He was 61 years old and lived in Muttontown, L. I., and on Fire Island. Mr. English, whose political astuteness was matched by his ability to laugh at himself and other politicians, was a top advisor to John F., Robert and Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He was chairman of the Fund for a Democratic Majority, Senator Kennedy's political action committee, and would have managed a Kennedy campaign for the Presidency. He was also instrumental in persuading Robert Kennedy to run for the Senate in New York in 1964. Although he had long been identified with the Kennedy family, he was national political director of Edmund S. Muskie's Presidential Campaign in 1972 and deputy national chairman of the Jimmy Carter Presidential campaign in 1980. Mr. English also played a key role in the election of Eugene H. Nickerson as the first and only Democrat elected Nassau County Executive in the early 1960's. Mr. Nickerson is now a judge in Federal District Court. Mr. English was a pioneer in establishing a suburban presence in New York State Democratic politics in the 1960's as he emerged as a major state figure. He had the polish and personality to be equally at home in a clubhouse and the White House. Despite its success, his political career was an avocation. He was a founder and senior partner of one of the leading Long Island law firms, Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein. The firm included among its partners Bernard S. Meyer, a retired State Court of Appeals judge; Joseph Suozzi, the former Appellate Division justice; John V. N. Klein, the former Suffolk County Executive and Basil Paterson, the former state senator and New York City deputy mayor. Mr. English had been law secretary to Mr. Meyer in 1959-60 when Mr. Meyer served on the State Supreme Court. He succeeded Mr. Meyer as Nassau Democratic chairman and was considered the most successful Democratic leader in the county then and since. At one point in his tenure in the 1960's, Democrats held four county offices, two congressional seats and half the county's six Assembly seats. He was a graduate of Iona College and Fordham Law School. He served four years in the Navy in World War II, winning four battle stars and the Philippine Liberation Medal."... EXCEPT FOR ONE-TIME PERSONAL USE, NO PART OF ANY NEW YORK TIMES MATERIAL MAY BE REPRODUCED BY ANY MECHANICAL, PHOTOGRAPHIC, ELECTRONIC PROCESS, OR IN THE FORM OF PHONOGRAPHIC RECORDING, NOR MAY IT BE STORED IN A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, TRANSMITTED OR OTHERWISE COPIED FOR PUBLIC OR PRIVATE USE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES PERMISSIONS DEPARTMENT." | 