James J. Crisona
American politician (1907–2003)
James J. Crisona (August 30, 1907 – September 4, 2003) was an American lawyer and politician. He served New York as a state senator; assemblyman; borough president; and Supreme Court justice.
Life
Crisona was born on August 30, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York City. He graduated from New York University School of Law in 1931, and subsequently joined the Manhattan law firm of Crisona Brothers, where he was senior partner from 1945 to 1957. He lived in Queens and entered politics as a Democrat.
Crisona was elected on November 6, 1945, to the New York State Assembly (Queens Co., 12th D.), to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John H. Ferril, and took his seat in the 165th New York State Legislature in January 1946. In November 1946, he ran for re-election, but was defeated by Henry Schneider Jr.
Crisona was a member of the New York State Senate from 1955 to 1957, sitting in the 170th and 171st New York State Legislatures. Among his legislative achievements, he is credited with helping transfer control of LaGuardia Airport and Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy Airport) to the Port Authority.
In November 1957, he was elected Borough President of Queens, unseating the Republican incumbent James A. Lundy.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6136656. VIAF identifies the subject as 108055853. The Library of Congress control number is no2010041727. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1907, 2003, 1931 and 1945.
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This entry incorporates text from “James J. Crisona” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.