(1924-2000) The Honorable Judge Ramirez led a most distinguished life marked by “first”s: the first Puerto Rican to be elected to the NY State Assembly and to the NY State Supreme Court. His career as a jurist was all the more remarkable given that he was blinded in early adulthood. He was active in many civic organizations in Brooklyn and an advocate for the disabled. Upon his retirement from the bench in 1997, Mayor Rudy Giuliani proclaimed a “Justice Gilbert Ramirez Day”. As a lasting legacy, a park in Brooklyn and an apartment building in the Bronx bear his name.