Former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman Dies

BEECHHURST, QUEENS — Former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman, the first woman to hold the position, died Sunday. She was 94.

Shulman served as borough president from 1986 to 2002.

During her tenure, she oversaw the rezoning of neighborhoods across the borough, from Long Island City to Jamaica, to generate development and economic activity, as well as the completion of Queens Hospital Center.

"In a borough known for its trailblazers, few have led a life of dedicated public service as robust and as effective as Claire Shulman," Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee said in a statement. "She transformed the landscape of the City's largest borough, and so much of what we see and enjoy today are the results of her extraordinary vision and decisions made over 18 years ago."

Shulman started her career as a nurse at Queens Hospital Center and became involved in local politics and activism while raising three children.

In 1955, she joined the Bayside Mother’s Club, a PTA forerunner, to push for local school improvements, according to the Queens Courier. She later became president of the group.

She was appointed to her local community board in 1966 and eventually served as the director of community boards under Queens Borough President Donald R. Manes, The New York Times reported. Several years later, he made her his deputy borough president.

Shulman was unanimously elected to the borough presidency in 1986 by a special vote of the borough's nine City Council members, after Manes resigned following an apparent suicide attempt, The New York Times reported at the time.

Manes had been under investigation for extortion.

Shulman went on to serve as the borough president for 16 years.

"She wasn't part of a political dynasty. She wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth," Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on Monday. "She was just someone who wanted to serve her fellow Queens residents, and she did so with extraordinary tenacity and an understanding of what life was like in the neighborhoods of Queens."

After Shulman left the borough presidency, she founded the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corp., which has helped advance development proposals for the Flushing waterfront, Willets Point and the Long Island Rail Road station on Main Street.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, who worked for Shulman when she was borough president and later served in the role herself, called Shulman a "trailblazer" and a "fierce leader."

"Claire was absolutely pivotal to the vibrancy and prosperity of Queens County that we continue to enjoy today," Katz said in a statement.

Shulman died at her home in Beechhurst. The cause was lung cancer, one of her longtime friends told The New York Times.

The Office of the Queens Borough President is planning a special tribute to Shulman, with details to come.