Herbert Sturz

Herb Sturz, a self-taught expert in criminal justice and urban planning who profoundly but inconspicuously influenced public policy across a remarkably broad range of issues in New York and beyond, died on Thursday June 10 2021 in Tucson, Ariz. He was 90. His niece Lisa Sturz said the cause was congestive heart failure. He lived in Manhattan, where he was injured in a fall two months ago and was recuperating in Tucson under his niece’s care. Mr. Sturz was the founding director of the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonpartisan think tank; New York City’s deputy mayor for criminal justice; and a member of The New York Times editorial board. A senior advisor of the Open Society Institute where he helped establish NURCHA which has facilitated the construction of over 300000 houses in South Africa Mr Sturz has also served as founding director of the Vera Institute of Justice; New York City Deputy Mayor for Criminal Justice; Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission and founding Chairman of the Center for New York City Neighborhoods. Herbert Jay Sturz was born on Dec. 31, 1930, in Bayonne, N.J., a gritty oil refining port just across from Staten Island. Mr. Sturz is survived by his daughter, Anna Lomax Chairetakis Wood, a scholar with the Association for Cultural Equity at Hunter College; a step-grandson; a step-great-grandson; and, in addition to Lisa Sturz, several other nieces and nephews. He married Margaret Shaw, a lawyer and mediator, in 2012. She died in 2017.