Leo Yanoff Letters UPT 50 Y24

Summary Information

Prepared by

Timothy H. Horning

Preparation date

March 2015

Date

1927

Extent

0.25 Cubic feet

PROVENANCE

The Leo Yanoff letters were donated to the University Archives by Ruth Yanoff in January 2015 (accession number 2015.005).

ARRANGEMENT

The Leo Yanoff letters are arranged chronologically.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Leo Yanoff was a member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1930. He later went to Harvard Law School where he earned an L.L.B. in 1933 and became a judge of the Essex County (N.J.) Superior Court.

He was born on September 18, 1910 in New York City and grew up in Paterson, New Jersey. He entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1927. He was a member of the Philomathean Society and was on the editorial board of the
Punch Bowl, the undergraduate humorous magazine of the University. After graduating with honors in 1930, Yanoff went to the Harvard Law School where he earned an LL.D. in 1933. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, then founded the law firm Fox, Yanoff, and Fox in Newark, N.J. in the 1950s, and served as President of the Jewish Community Council of Essex County (N.J.) from 1958 to 1960.

In 1969 Yanoff was appointed by New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes to the Essex County District Court. Three years later he became a County Court judge and subsequently a Superior Court judge. When he retired in 1999 after thirty years on the bench, Yanoff was the longest sitting judge in the New Jersey court system.

Leo Yanoff was married for 73 years to his wife Louise, with whom he had two children, Ruth and Israel. He died on July 16, 2010, aged 99.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Leo Yanoff letters were written by Leo Yanoff to his parents between September and November 1927. The letters document Yanoff’s thoughts during his first months as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. Subjects include: classes and grades, dorms, food, football games, fraternities, men in fur coats, the Philomathean Society, and swimming.

Controlled Access Headings

Occupation(s)

University of Pennsylvania–Students.

Subject(s)

College students’ writings, American–Pennsylvania–Philadelphia.

College students–Attitudes.

Inventory