BY ALBERT AMATEAU | Catherine Abate, president and C.E.O. of Community Healthcare Network for the past 15 years, former state senator representing the Village, and Dinkins administration commissioner of the city departments of Correction and Probation, died Saturday at Bellevue Hospital. She was 66.
Her death came after a two-year battle with uterine cancer. In addition to conventional medical care, she underwent alternative holistic treatment that extended her quality of life, she told The Villager last year.
Her life and work in public service was an inspiration to people who followed her in government, nonprofit service and health agencies and labor groups.
“It’s a terrible, terrible loss,” Assemblymember Deborah Glick told The Villager on Monday. “She was a totally wonderful person, with no self-aggrandizing attitude, which is fairly unique in politics. Just a good, kind, thoughtful policymaker, who reached out to people everywhere and did as much as she could to help those who had nothing. It’s really too upsetting,” Glick said, her voice catching with emotion. “She’s going to be very missed by a lot of people.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed Abate as a dedicated public servant and a passionate advocate for human rights.
“I fondly remember working together with her in 1989 as founding members of Italian-Americans for Dinkins,” the mayor said. “She never shied from a good cause and a good fight.”
State Senator Brad Hoylman — whose 27th District seat Abate held for two terms from 1995 to 1999 — said the community “has lost one of our most dedicated, talented and thoughtful public servants.”
Hoylman paid tribute to Abate’s diverse and far-reaching public career, encompassing state and city government and the friendship and mentoring of future leaders, including himself.
“At Community Healthcare Network, Catherine expanded healthcare and social service programs for the underserved and developed innovative strategies for vulnerable segments of the L.G.B.T. population, including transgender people and those living with H.I.V./AIDS,” Hoylman said. “Catherine set a high bar for public service that the rest of us should try to match.”
Tony Hoffmann, president of the Village Independent Democrats club and a friend and colleague, called Abate one of the best public servants New York City ever had.
“She got her political start at V.I.D. where she was female district leader from 1981 to 1985,” Hoffmann said. “It was my privilege to serve with her as co-district leader. She was one of the brightest, most caring and competent people I have ever known.
“She left her mark wherever she trod. We are all better off because of her.”
Comptroller Scott Stringer said Catherine Abate was one of the city’s great civic leaders. He recalled that as commissioner of the departments of Correction and Probation she addressed the city’s high recidivism rates by establishing job-training programs and education opportunities for formerly incarcerated people. She also instituted measures to control jail overcrowding and reduce inmate violence.
“Catherine brought that same passion and determination to public office in the state Senate and later as the president and C.E.O. of Community Healthcare Network, where she continued a tradition of protecting and improving the lives of our most vulnerable New Yorkers,” Stringer said. “Catherine has left an indelible mark on New York City and New York State.”
“Catherine was a force of nature,” said Elizabeth Krob Kellner, chairperson of the Community Healthcare Network board of directors. “A visionary and passionate leader, she knew what was required to help the most in need and always managed to make it happen. She was indefatigable and tenacious.”
Dr. Matthew A. Weissman, chief medical officer and acting president of C.H.N., said, “More than anything, Catherine was focused on providing the best services.”
During her tenure, all C.H.N. clinics were designated federally qualified health centers and received joint commission accreditation and National Committee for Quality Assurance certification. “These credentials are the gold standard for health clinics and proof of the quality care that C.H.N. patients receive,” Weissman said.
During her tenure, she more than tripled the number of people that C.H.N. served annually, from about 20,000 to 75,000. About 80 percent of C.H.N patients are on Medicaid or are not insured.
Catherine Abate was also a supporter of Village Care, the nonprofit agency that has many clients living with H.I.V./AIDS. Frank Oldham, Jr., city coordinator of AIDS policy in the Bloomberg administration and a consultant to Village Care, called Abate a dedicated leader for social justice and human rights.
“I am honored to have known Catherine Abate and had her touch my life,” Oldham said.
During her two terms in the state Senate, Abate “was a firewall” against AIDS funding cuts to the state budget, according to Paul Schindler, editor of Gay City News.
“Catherine Abate was a shining star of the New York criminal justice system and a great advocate for justice for all,” said Elizabeth Butson, a member of the VillageCare board of directors and former publisher of The Villager. “She was a strong supporter of VillageCare when AIDS was a crisis in the community. I will always remember her fairness and gentleness.”
Catherine Abate graduated cum laude from Vassar College and earned a law degree from Boston College. Her first job was with the Legal Aid Society in New York City where, as director of training in the society’s criminal defense division, she taught criminal law and procedure and litigation practice to new lawyers.
In 1986, Governor Mario Cuomo appointed her executive deputy commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights. In 1988, she was named chairperson of the state Crime Victims Board.
In 1992, when Mayor Dinkins named her to head the Correction and Probation departments, reporters asked her about allegations that her father, Joseph Abate, was an organized crime figure. She dismissed the allegations and said her father was a clothing manufacturer in Margate, N.J., where she was raised.
The allegation that Joseph Abate was a capo in the Lucchese crime family surfaced again in 1998 when Catherine was seeking the Democratic Party nomination for state attorney general against Eliot Spitzer. At that time she dropped her denial of the allegations, although she said she could not substantiate the charge because her father died in 1994 with dementia at the age of 92.
“The allegations don’t describe the father that I knew,” she said in 1998.
Abate also was interested in running for Manhattan district attorney, but dropped the idea after Robert Morgenthau endorsed Cy Vance, Jr. as his successor.
Catherine Abate was a frequent lecturer and panelist on human rights, criminal justice, healthcare and management. In the state Senate she was the ranking Democrat on the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, as well as the Investigations and Government Operations Committee.
She also served as a member of the New York City Commission on H.I.V./AIDS, the state Community Health Care Association, the Alliance for Women’s Health, the steering committee of Medicaid Matters New York, the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee, the state Probation Commission, the New York City Board of Corrections, and as co-chairperson of the Business and Labor Coalition of New York (BALCONY).
Her husband, Ronald Kliegerman, her son, Kyle Kliegerman, and her brother, Joseph Abate, survive.
Frank E. Campbell, 1076 Madison Ave., is in charge of arrangements. A Mass of Christian burial is scheduled for Thurs., May 21, at St. John Baptiste Church, E. 76th St. at Lexington Ave. Donations in her memory may be made to Community Healthcare Network, 60 Madison Ave., fifth floor, NY, NY, 10010, designated for Holistic Center.
