DEAN CRAIG M BOISE

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT | ROSEMARY BUCCI L’64
In 1947, growing up in
Baldwinsville, NY as the daughter
of a machinist, a college
education seemed out of the
question. Rosemary Bucci L’64
was an excellent student and won
a year’s scholarship to Central
City Business Institute, a business
school in downtown Syracuse.
Bucci found work in what she
calls “the big city” (Syracuse) but
after a few years she grew tired of
taking the bus back and forth from
Baldwinsville, and accepted a job
with the Gale and Stone Law Firm in her hometown. After several
years of doing clerical work and typing for lawyers, she decided she
would become a lawyer, herself.
Bucci still practices family law, working out of her office on
Syracuse Street, where she first opened her door in Baldwinsville
and set up shop in January 1965. “I bloomed where I was planted,”
she laughs. “I’m nicely busy. I like working one-on-one with people.
I like to help solve problems and God knows a lot of people have
problems.”
Bucci was one of only two women in her law school class.
She remembers comments from some male students when she
first enrolled. “Some didn’t take me too seriously. They said I was
there to find a husband, or they said, someday you could be my
secretary.” The teasing only lasted until the first grades came out—
when Bucci proved to be a stellar student.
June Lockwood A&S’61, L’63 was a year ahead of Bucci at the
College of Law, and the two became friends. They both graduated
at the top of their class. Lockwood and Bucci decided to practice
together once Bucci graduated and they did so together for 42
years. With Family Court appearances requiring a lot of time away
from the office, the two decided to split the work—Bucci would
handle family law, and Lockwood took on the other cases that
came in, mainly real estate, trusts, and estates.
Business came in early and steadily for Bucci. From the
beginning, she took on divorce cases, many of which she says
were patently unfair to women financially.
Mothers who had stayed home to raise children had no
financial resources to seek legal help in a divorce. “The men could
afford attorneys,” she says. “They got bully attorneys.”
Bucci took on cases, even if she knew she was not going to
be paid. ’I could not stand by and see this happen, and see these
women get stuck.”
Without adequate child support, Bucci says, single mothers
were forced to go on Welfare. Eventually, the Federal Government
intervened with the Family Court Child Enforcement Program and
The Child Support Standards Act, which required reasonable child
support for mothers and children. Bucci was a strong advocate for
her clients and developed a great reputation.
“They used to say I was keeping marriages together in
Baldwinsville, because what would happen is one spouse would
say to the other, ’I’m going down to see Rosemary Bucci.’”
Right now, Bucci has no plans to retire from her family law
practice. Her associate, Linda Cook L’73 ,continues to take care
of the other areas of the law as she has for over 40 years, so the
office is well equipped to carry out a general law practice. Bucci
even worked on her most recent birthday, and her office celebrated
with a cake and a party.
“Yes, I worked on my birthday,” she says. ’It’s okay. My God,
birthdays come around every year.”
1963
James D. Fitzpatrick
was listed in the current edition of
Marquis “Who’s Who in the World,”
(2016), 33rd Edition, founded in 1889.
Fitzpatrick was also named “One of the
Outstanding People of the 20th Century”
by the International Biographical Center,
Cambridge, England.
1965
Walter L. Meagher
Jr. has been selected
for inclusion in
Upstate New York
Super Lawyers for 2015.
Meagher is a partner
at Hancock Estabrook,
LLP and has over 40 years of experience
in the areas of personal injury, premises
liability, automobile liability, construction
accidents and products liability litigation.
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