Gandolfo V. DiBlasi
Gandolfo Vincent DiBlasi of Manhattan, a renowned lawyer who was known to friends and colleagues as Vince, died on Jan. 14 from complications of pneumonia. He was 64.
Mr. DiBlasi was a litigator for the Wall Street firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, handling many high-profile cases, which ran the gamut from takeover law to securities, antitrust, commercial, and white-collar crime cases. According to his family, the cases he took up would “always involve matters that were particularly challenging and urgent.” He was a director of the Legal Aid Society, a trustee of the Federal Bar Council, a trustee of the Riverdale Country School, and director of Asphalt Green, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting health through sports and fitness.
He was a recipient of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Judge Simon H. Rifkind Award, which recognizes exemplary public service, and of Yale Law School’s Simeon E. Baldwin Award, which recognizes distinguished alumni. At the presentation of the Baldwin award, Judge Ralph K. Winter, said, “He is stunningly brilliant and among the greatest craftsman in the law. He also has wisdom and judgment, qualities not always associated with brilliance.”
Mr. DiBlasi was born in Brooklyn on July 7, 1953, one of three sons of the former Theresa Restivo and Rudolph DiBlasi, a New York State assemblyman and family court judge. Mr. DiBlasi graduated from Brooklyn Preparatory School and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1975 from Yale University. His doctorate came from Yale Law School in 1978, and he remained involved in Yale alumni matters and fund-raising for the rest of his life. He joined Sullivan & Cromwell in Manhattan in 1978, going on to become a partner in the company’s litigation group and working there for nearly four decades.
Mr. DiBlasi spent childhood summers in Montauk in a house built by his maternal grandparents. In September 1980 he married the former Roberta Wilson at Montauk’s St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church. She survives, as do his sons, Richard DiBlasi and William DiBlasi. His brother Joseph V. DiBlasi died a year before him; his brother Rudolph DiBlasi of Moriches survives, as do several nieces and nephews.
Having heard of his former classmate’s death, Harold Hongju Koh, a professor at Yale Law School, told the school’s online alumni journal, “I met Vince when we were freshmen and watched him grow into a brilliant lawyer, a profoundly shrewd counselor, and a lightning-quick wit — able to deliver a hilarious retort and a Latin quote from Ovid in the same breath.”
There was a private funeral and a memorial service is being organized. Memorial donations have been suggested for the Independent Group Home Living Foundation, 221 North Service Road, Manorville 11419, or ighl.org.