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Rosemary Bucci at 90th birthday party. Bucci practiced family law in Onondaga County for 58 years. She died in 2022 at 92.
She's left $1.5 million to charities in her hometown, Baldwinsville. Provided by Martha Mulroy Ryann Phillips | Contributing Writer Syracuse, N.
Y.-- Rosemary Bucci was one of two women in her graduating class at Syracuse University College of Law in 1964. Some of her colleagues said that she was only there to find a husband or that she would become one of their secretaries.
She proved them wrong. Bucci became the editor-in-chief of the Syracuse Law Review and graduated at the top of her class. She opened a law firm in Baldwinsville in her early 30s and practiced until she was in her 90s.
“There weren’t that many women at the time she started in the field, and they soon learned that she knew what she was doing,” the remaining lawyer at the Bucci Law Firm, Linda Cook said. Bucci, a divorce lawyer for 58 years who lived in Baldwinsville , died in 2022. She was 92.
But she left more than her legacy as a fierce advocate for clients. She gave $1.5 million to benefit nonprofit organizations in the village of Baldwinsville and the towns of Van Buren and Lysander.
The gift was announced by the Central New York Community Foundation last month and will start to be distributed through grants to local nonprofits this year. “Rosemary was kind of a fixture in town,” said Norma Widmann, a member of the Baldwinsville Rotary Club. “Everybody knew her.
She knew everybody and just a very friendly person.” Rosemary Bucci in 2008. Bucci, a divorce lawyer from Baldwinsville, died in 2022 at 92.
She's left $1.5 million to charities in her hometown. syracuse.
com Martha Mulroy, a retired Family Court and acting state Supreme Court judge, knew Bucci for more than three decades. Bucci was always put together with jet black hair, matching outfits and high heels, ready to fight for her clients, the judge said. Mulroy was in court with Bucci a week before she died, and she was still ready to go to trial if necessary.
“She was an icon, because she always stood out, the minute she walked in the door,” Mulroy said. Bucci was also the first female president of the Baldwinsville Rotary Club. She was also a member of the Onondaga Bar Association and served on the board of the McHarrie Life Senior Community, a senior living center.
Bucci’s gift is an endowed fund, so the goal is for it to last a long time, said Tom Griffith, vice president of development of the Community Foundation. The money will continue to be dispersed through grants for nonprofits each year. Ryann Phillips is a graduate student at Syracuse University and a 2025 Newhouse Fellow.
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