Stanley Nemser, a longtime Rye resident, died at home April 19, 2008. He was 86.
Mr. Nemser was born Aug. 7, 1921, in New York City to Joseph Nemser, a Russian immigrant and Sadie Sumer, who was from Austria. His mother was a well-known dress designer who made the dress worn by President’s Coolidge’s wife at his inauguration. He grew up in Manhattan and attended Townsend Harris High School and New York University.

During World War II, he served as a sergeant and code breaker in the 5th Army Air Corps, under the command of General McArthur in the South Pacific.

After the war, Mr. Nemser attended Harvard Law School. He married Barbara Fisher in March 1956 and they moved to Rye in the early 1960s.

For more than 20 years, he was a partner at Wolf Popper LLP in Manhattan. He continued to be of council up until shortly before his death. His colleagues at the firm remembered him in a notice in the New York Times, as “a brilliant litigator and a pioneer in the field of class action securities litigation” as well as an “esteemed mentor, colleague and friend.”

He was a gifted storyteller and pianist and was active in organizations including Friends of Rye Town Park.

At an April 22 memorial service, Assemblyman George Latimer awarded Mr. Nemser a posthumous certificate of merit for his contributions as a soldier and lawyer, and an active member of the Rye community. “Stanley Nemser was an outstanding guy and a fine neighbor,” he said. Showing just how loved he was, the service was attended by former classmates of Mr. Nemser, as well as members of his army unit, one of whom served as a pallbearer.

Mr. Nemser is survived by his wife of 51 years. His son Jonathan, his only child, predeceased him in 1990.