Necrology

John Brooks Cosgrove '52

Jun. 23, 1930-Jun. 15, 2022

John Brooks Cosgrove ’52, P’93 died at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, N.Y., on June 15, 2022, just eight days shy of his 92nd birthday. Born in Utica on June 23, 1930, he was raised on a dairy farm near Clinton and came to Hamilton from Clinton Central High School. On the Hill, he majored in English literature.

John attended Albany (N.Y.) Law School after Hamilton. After graduating in 1955, he joined the Army and served for two years in the Counter Intelligence Corps. Discharged in 1957, he returned to Clinton and practiced law with the firm of Shea, Griffin, and Jones. John opened his own law office in Clinton in 1958, principally handling cases related to real estate, commercial transactions, and trusts and estates, and also pro bono work.

Around this time, John traveled to New York City with a friend for a blind date with a recent arrival from County Kerry, Ireland: Miss Nuala Carmody. As Nuala reported later, she was not particularly enthusiastic about the meeting, as she had just suffered through a date with a taciturn young man the night before. On this occasion, the two met at the Roosevelt Grill in Manhattan. (The house band was Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.) While this date seemed to go a little better, she did not give it much thought until the phone rang the next day: It was John, asking to go out with her again. They married on Aug. 5, 1961, at St. John’s Catholic Church in the Bronx, and stayed together for more than 60 years.

In 1961, John was elected justice of the peace for the Town of Kirkland, of which Clinton is the principal village. He co-authored the Oneida County Charter and Code from 1962 to 1963, when the county adopted an executive form of government, and represented Oneida County in the New York State Assembly from 1964 to 1965.

From 1968 to 1972, he was first president of the Cosgrove-Kinney Corp., which acquired a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise that served most of Queens, N.Y. At the time, KFC was just beginning to make a reputation beyond the Bluegrass State. The linebackers on the New York Jets football team were customers. Closer to home, John closed his legal practice in 2009 and retired after 51 years of work. 

Outside of his profession, John was a man of many parts. He and Nuala traveled annually to Ballybunion, County Kerry, where she owns property. An avid golfer, John was a member of both Clinton’s Skenandoa Club and the Ballybunion Golf Club. He was an equally enthusiastic gardener.

John was a strong supporter of Hamilton: he worked on the Priorities for Hamilton campaign and supported the Thomas McNaughton Johnston Memorial Scholarship endowment. He also persuaded his oldest child to apply for admission. She was accepted.

John B. Cosgrove is survived by his wife, two daughters, including Christina M. Cosgrove ’93, and a son.

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