Rockland Lawmakers Mourn Former Colleague Philip Bosco

From the Rockland County Legislature

Rockland County lawmakers joined family and friends to mourn former County Legislator Philip J. Bosco, who died Nov. 16 at the age of 89.

Bosco, a well-known local business owner for many years, spent much of his adult life involved in civic matters, from elective office to community service that included years of advocating for solutions to the flooding of Route 59 in the West Nyack area.

“On behalf of the entire Legislature, I want to extend our condolences and sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Phil Bosco,” said County Legislature Chairman Jay Hood Jr. “He proudly served as a county legislator and eagerly engaged in the issues he believed were important, remaining civic-minded throughout his years of public service and beyond.”

Bosco served a four-year term on the County Legislature, from 1986-89. He previously served as the County Budget Officer and Auditor and as Town of Orangetown Finance Director. He earned an accounting degree from Boston University, which he attended after serving in the Navy during the Korean War.

Born in Nyack, he was a longtime member of St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church in Nanuet, a 3rd Degree member of the McCloskey Council of the Knights of Columbus, a member of the New City American Legion and a member of the Rockland County Girl Scouts’ Board of Directors. He is survived by his wife, Constance, and many family members.

During his tenure as a county legislator, he supported passage of the Rockland County Obscene Material Display Law. The controversial proposal sought to ban “display in public places any picture, photograph, drawing, motion-picture film or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse and which is obscene as to minors.”

There was much debate on the proposal and on the night it was adopted, Dec. 1, 1986, the Legislature had to invoke the “Cinderella Law” because the meeting had continued past midnight and into Dec. 2. The Obscene Material Display Law, still in effect today, does not ban the sale of materials to adults, but focuses only on the display of such materials in the interest of minors. It was adopted 12-9 by the then-21-member Legislature.

Long after his time on the County Legislature, Bosco remained civic-minded and active with county issues, but it was getting harder; and when asked how he was doing, he would often paraphrase actress Bette Davis by saying “Getting old ain’t for sissies.”

Age did not stop him from focusing on the continuing flooding of Route 59 in West Nyack. He owned a beverage supply business while his neighbor, Bob Dillon, owned a nearby car sales business, both in the flood zone.

Both men were frustrated by the decades-long flooding and just a few years back, took it upon themselves to travel on and map out the waterways in the area, noting every place where a bottleneck could occur and contribute to the flooding. They even took interested parties on tours of the problem areas in hopes of drawing attention and getting solutions implemented. The state Department of Environmental Conservation and others did get involved and made some changes, although flooding still occurs in the area.