“Nobody is above the law,” he told NY1 in an interview in 2005.In his 35 years as Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau built a reputation for going after the powerful, whether it was Mafia bosses, big banks or corrupt politicians — part of his guiding philosophy that justice must be fair and even-handed.

“Nobody is above the law,” he told NY1 in an interview in 2005. “We prosecute cases without fear or favor, no matter where you are on the social or economic spectrum. You commit a crime, you’re going to be prosecuted. By the same token, you may be at the bottom, but we’re not going to abuse you.”

Morgenthau was born into a powerful, politically-connected family: His father Henry served in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s cabinet as Treasury Secretary. Morgenthau would serve with distinction in the Navy during World War II, and later was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan. He served in that position for most of the 1960s, with a break in 1962, when he undertook a failed run for governor.

Morgenthau would then serve briefly in Mayor John Lindsay’s administration as a deputy mayor, before another failed run for governor. It was in 1974 he was first elected DA, a run that lasted until 2009, when he decided to retire at age 90.

“I decided I wouldn’t push my luck any further, that I would quite while I’m ahead,” he said in announcing his retirement.

Morganthau's time in office spanned the administrations of five different mayors. He was a Democrat who enjoyed broad support from the political class and was rarely challenged in his re-election campaigns.

He was progressive even perhaps by today's standards; he was an advocate for immigrants and gun control and vehemently opposed the death penalty.
 
"What you’re doing is, you’re dealing with violence by more violence,” he said in 2001.

He may have rubbed shoulders with the politically powerful, but Morganthau wasn't afraid to take on the powers that be during a remarkable life in public service, inspired in part by a brush with death during the war.

"The second ship I was on torpedoed and sunk off Algiers, and I was out there swimming in the water,” he told NY1 in a 2004 profile segment. And I said, ‘Hey if I get out of this, I'm going to do something useful with my life.’"

Morganthau was just 10 days shy of what would have been his 100th birthday.