Reprinted from the New York Times, September 19, 1992

Kenneth L. Shorter, a former New York State Supreme Court justice in Manhattan, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 77 years old.

Justice Shorter died of heart failure, said his son, Elliot.

A native of Manhattan, Justice Shorter graduated from Townsend Harris High School, and from the City College of New York in 1934. He earned a master’s degree in English at Columbia University in 1938 and his law degree at the Fordham Law School in 1942.

Justice Shorter worked for the Federal Office of Price Administration in Manhattan during World War II, and was in private practice from the late 1940’s to the late 1960’s.

He was elected to the Manhattan Civil Court in 1969 and served until his election to the State Supreme Court in Manhattan in 1980. After Justice Shorter reached the court’s retirement age of 70, he was certified by the Court’s Administrative Board to serve the maximum of three additional two-year terms. He resigned from the Court in 1990 because of ill health.

Justice Shorter was a member of the Harlem Lawyers Association, the New York Child Lawyers Association, the National Lawyers Guild, the New York County Lawyers Association and the American Bridge Association. He was also active in St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.

Justice Shorter’s wife, the former Muriel L. Reid, died in 1989.

He is survived by a son, Elliot K. Shorter, of Providence, R.I; a daughter, Ann L., of Manhattan, and one grandddaughter.