Inducted in 2013
Supreme Court Justice, New York State
Civil Court Judge, New York City
Community Organizer
Father of a Prep Graduate

Induction Video

With his parents Albert and Antoinette and sister Catherine — as well as a grandmother, Rose Martinico — Paul Victor, born Paul Viggiano, was living on Beaumont Avenue in the Belmont section of the Bronx, just south of Rose Hill, when he transferred into the Prep during the middle of the term.

The transition was not easy. 

In fact, by his own estimation, his first day at Hughes Hall was downright intimidating. As Victor described it: though home was only blocks away, he felt as if he were on the other side of the world. Few boys from his neighborhood were attending the Prep in those days, and so, there really were no familiar faces. Moreover, at his former school “the focus was more on developing a trade, not scholastic achievement.”

And so, surrounded by classmates he judged to be better educated, and faced with a new dress code and standard of discipline, young Paul felt “humiliated — confused, isolated and terrified.“

Among Paul's favorite Prep stories was standing in line at assembly on that very first morning when he felt the uncomfortable weight of a gaze, and found himself called over by Fr. Shea, the Prep's legendary 20th-century prefect of discipline, and today a fellow Hall of Honor member.  As Paul used to tell it, he thought he had actually looked “pretty dapper" that morning.  Father disagreed: “He squinted and frowned; he made me button my top button and pull up my tie — I had jug my very first day.”

Things began to turn around quickly, however, when Mike Stanton came over, befriended him, and introduced him around.  Victor and Stanton — also a Class of 1950 man and a Prep Hall of Honor member — would remain close friends from that day on. 
 
Looking back, Victor would describe his time at the Prep as a rich experience. He walked to school every morning, leaving the small, all-concrete enclave of Belmont for the Rose Hill campus. “It was like entering Wonderland. It was green. There were majestic buildings and towers. And we had instruction from legendary teachers. They were all stern, but also kind and gentle.”

Paul always credited the demands of the Prep with helping him develop a work ethic that left a lasting mark on his academic and professional life. Believing that he had a lot of catching up to do, he started getting up at 5:30 am so he could be at school by 7 am to go over his lessons from the day before and to preview the material for the day ahead — a custom that would remain with him always.  “As a judge," he would say, "I was the first person in the courthouse in the morning before the hustle and bustle started. And the Prep gave me the tools to organize my thoughts and think analytically and logically — necessities for lawyers and judges.”

Soon enough, Victor caught up. The boy from Beaumont Avenue was confused, isolated and terrified no more.

At the beginning of his sophomore year, Paul developed a spinal problem that kept him out of sports for two years. When he was finally able to return to athletics, however, Paul learned yet further Prep lessons of perseverance and hard work on the basketball court. The team’s tallest center was barely over six feet tall, and the team won just three games and lost seven during his senior year, most of them by just one basket. In Victor’s words “It was heartbreaking, but fun — and most importantly, a challenge."

Academics and athletics aside, the spiritual life of the Prep also left an indelible imprint on Paul. He had received the basics at home, and had had religious training in preparation for Communion and Confirmation, but it was at the Prep that he really began to deepen his relationship with God. Through four years of religious instruction, retreats and Eucharistic devotion, Paul Victor was able to explore his spiritual dimensions and to grow in his faith. But for that foundation, the Judge often remarked, the tragic events in his life would have been unbearable.

After graduation from the Prep, Paul would have two more Fordham graduations, making him a classic “3F” man — Fordham Prep, 1940; Fordham College, 1954; and Fordham Law School, 1959. He played basketball for four years in college — two of those years on the Fordham University varsity squad — with an intensity and sense of dedication that would have made his old Prep coach, Edward McInnis, proud. 

Victor also went on to serve as a lieutenant in the United States Air Force and was stationed at the Air Force Missile Test Center at Patrick Air Force Pace in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Sure enough, he played basketball during his time in the service as well.

In January 1962, Paul Victor married Teresa Grekulak. They raised three sons: Albert, Paul and Eric. Paul would graduate the Prep as a member of the Class of 1983.

Between 1959 and 1961 Victor was a law assistant to Judge Adrian Burke in the New York Court of Appeals, and from 1962 to 1964, he served as assistant district attorney in Bronx County. For more than 30 years, from 1964 to 1998, he had a private practice in civil, criminal and election law cases, arguing dozens of cases at the Appellate Division and New York Court of Appeals. 

Victor also served as counsel and parliamentarian to the executive committee of the Bronx Democratic County Committee. Mayor Edward Koch would appoint him to the New York City Conciliation and Appeals Board, and Governor Mario Cuomo, to the Law Revision Commission. 

In 1998, Paul Victor was elected a judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York, and in 2000, a justice of the Supreme Court of New York. 

Along the way, he was also would also serve as a respected lecturer at the Office of the Court Administrator as well as at the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, and would author a chapter in a New York State Bar Association publication on structured settlements and settlement of claims by infants and impaired persons. 

After retiring from the Supreme Court of New York in 2009, Victor would become a judicial hearing officer at the New York State Supreme Court and a mediator at National Arbitration and Mediation.

Judge Victor was honored by the Bronx Bar Association in 2008 and received the Rapallo Award from the Columbian Lawyers Association, an affiliate of the National Italian American Bar Association. Previous recipients of this award included Samuel Alito, Jr., George Pataki, Rudolph Giuliani, Antonin Scalia and Alphonse D’Amato. 

Staying true to the Jesuit lessons of service and compassion from his Prep days, the Honorable Paul A. Victor would serve on community planning boards throughout his professional life, as well as volunteer with various groups, found a nonprofit corporation for affordable housing, and work with the National Italian American Foundation to help students in need.   

In 2013, Victor would describe his induction into the Fordham Prep Hall of Honor as “marvelous and humbling.” He would note that several core principles he developed while at the Prep would remain with him throughout life — including the belief that “it’s easier to sleep at night if you treat people the way you want to be treated.”

The good judge's words of wisdom: “Find the time to meditate, talk to God, and thank God for your blessings.  Pray for opportunities to help others.” 

“Fordham Prep changed the course of my life," he once remarked.  "I often ponder what might have happened to me if my parents had not made the sacrifice of sending me here. Few people in Belmont had the opportunity to become lawyers or judges.”

The Honorable Paul A. Victor, JD '50, P'83 did become a lawyer and judge, and proved himself a loyal son of Fordham and "Man for Others" as well.   He passed away on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022.  

Fordham Prep will always be proud of the boy from Belmont.