Retired environmental lawyer, expert gardener, avid reader, religious free-thinker, attentive family man and gentle soul, Dennis Harkawik of Northampton, Massachusetts and lately of Buffalo, New York, has died after a short but fierce battle with abdominal sarcoma.
Growing up in Flushing, Queens, Dennis along with all of his peers was nurtured in families of recent immigrants. In his case, his maternal grandparents were driven by poverty from northeast and northwest Italy to find work in New York City; his paternal grandparents fled a pogrom in Belarus and hardship in Ukraine, also finding shelter and work in New York City. Of these hardships, they said little. Dennis’s father was a machinist at the Bulova Watch Company, having earlier served during W.W.II on bomb squads in London and then in northern France after D-Day disabling unexploded ordinance. His mother left high school before graduating in order to help support her large and loving family, in many ways a second (and English-speaking) mother to her four much-younger siblings. She eventually worked for many years as a “bookkeeper” for a senior living residence, a position that today might better be called a “chief financial officer.”
Dennis found early and consistent academic success in New York City Public Schools, graduating with honors from Flushing High School. He attended N.Y.U. on numerous scholarships, including one from the Bulova Watch Company (as the only recipient whose father worked in the machine shop and not the executive suite), and on student loans. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering, and a master’s in public administration. Facing a very poor job market in 1974 for chemical engineers, he accepted a position with the N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation, in Albany, N.Y. After two years, with many of his friends enrolled in law school and anticipating higher earning power than state service offered, Dennis enrolled at the University of Buffalo Law School, where he joined the Law Review and served as Articles Editor, graduating in 1979, with a job offer from a large N.Y.C. law firm, LeBoeuf Lamb Leiby & MacRae., LLP.
Dennis and his wife, Aven, a fellow law school graduate and lawyer, lived and worked in Manhattan until their first child, Peter, was almost two years old, before moving to Glen Ridge, N.J., where their second son, Garret, was born. Wishing to change career focus from handling rate cases involving utilities and other regulated industries, to practicing environmental law exclusively, he accepted a position in 1993 as head of the Environmental Practice Group at Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel LLP, a Buffalo law firm. His senior partner at the LeBoeuf firm was stunned when Dennis announced his decision to relinquish his partnership and move to Western New York. “But why?” He asked. “Is it a woman…or drugs?” It was neither. After the career move, Dennis enjoyed more family time and a healthy, collaborative work environment in which other lawyers often brought their bag lunches to his office at noon, for a pleasant half-hour’s respite from their duty to bill hours and serve corporate clients ever seeking the best legal services at the lowest possible cost.
Dennis handled mass toxic tort cases and smaller environmental mishaps alike. During his time at LeBoeuf, he contributed to a winning brief filed in a 1986 Supreme Court case that gave Sandra Day O’Connor her first opportunity to write a majority opinion. He encountered Justice O’Connor on a receiving line at a professional event years later, mentioned their connection, and she said, “Nantahala Power and Light?” He was delighted that she remembered.
Approaching 65, and having no desire to retire, Dennis returned to the N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation as Regional Counsel in Region 8, which extended south through Rochester from Lake Ontario, past numerous large and small finger lakes, to the Pennsylvania border. He again enjoyed a collaborative work environment, handling enforcement actions with the perspective of a seasoned environmental attorney and overseeing the work of three lawyers who valued his guidance.
Dennis was diligent. He did not procrastinate. He returned phone calls. He attended to administrative and legal tasks with equal vigor. His enduring friendships were among boyhood friends, work colleagues and fellow fans of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. A talented gardener, he researched and devised means to save the fruits of his labors from relentless vermin and predators of all stripes. He was proud when the Buffalo Garden Walk used a photo of his urban garden on its website.
Retiring at 70, he and his wife relocated to Western Massachusetts, to be closer to their sons and grandchildren. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many hoped-for trips and experiences were denied him, but for the two years that remained to him, he loved his custom-built, net-zero new home, his 20’ x 20’ plot in the Northampton Community Garden, and his proximity to family members and the natural beauty of New England.
He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Aven Rennie, his sons, Peter, a gallerist in N.Y.C. and L.A., Garret, a documentary film maker in Wilmington, Vermont, his daughter-in-law, Lauren, a writer, his granddaughters, Imogene, 6, and Esphyr, 2, of Wilmington, Vermont, his sister, Laura Meyers, of St. Petersburg, Florida, his brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Roselie of Myrtle Beach, S.C., his father-in-law, Robert G. Rennie, and brother-in-law Robert J. Rennie and his wife Patricia, all of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, numerous nieces and nephews, numerous cousins, and numerous friends.
A bereavement luncheon celebrating his life is planned for December 11, 2022, from 11:30 a.m. -2:30 p.m. at Union Station, a banquet facility at 125A Pleasant Street/74 Railroad Avenue, Northampton, MA, 01060. RSVP to the family at
garretharkawik@gmail.com
or to the Ahearn Funeral Home at
info@ahearnfuneralhome.com
.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his honor to The American Cancer Society (1-800-227-2345).