Eugene L. Wishod, a lawyer who represented Robert David Lion Gardiner in his lengthy legal battle with relatives to regain access to Gardiner’s Island, died on Feb. 14 at home in Ridgefield, Conn. The frequent summer resident of East Hampton was 88.
Mr. Wishod, known to friends as Gene, practiced law on Long Island for 50 years, and was a founding partner of several firms. Regarded as a brilliant courtroom strategist, he won the Gardiner’s Island case in 1992 after years of litigation, and Mr. Gardiner, who has since died, was allowed to stay on the island, though not when his niece, Alexandra Creel Goelet, and her husband were in residence.
In 1959, Mr. Wishod married the former Lora Lehrman. They lived in Head of the Harbor, where he served as Village Justice for 10 years. He was a former president of the Suffolk County Bar Association, and held leadership positions in a number of other legal organizations as well.
Born on May 8, 1931, in Brooklyn, to the former Mae Horowitz and Benjamin Wishod, he graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1953. After college, he was commissioned as a major in the Army; he later earned a degree from Yale University Law School. Before going into private practice, he clerked for Judge Charles W. Froessel of the New York Court of Appeals.
Mr. Wishod loved swimming and diving in the waves, playing the piano, running, playing tennis, and walking the East End beaches. He thought no other beaches in the world could compare, his family said. In 2009, the Wishods moved to Ridgefield to live near their daughter, Karen Wishod Sulzinsky, and he continued to practice law until three years ago.
In addition to his daughter, his wife survives, as does a son, Steven Wishod of Gaithersburg, Md., and three grandsons. Funeral services were private. Burial was at Maple Shade Cemetery in Ridgefield. The family has suggested memorial donations to the Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association, 27 Governor Street, Ridgefield, Conn. 06877, or Meals on Wheels of Ridgefield, 25 Gilbert Street.
