A star of Suffolk’s court system, Surrogate Judge Theresa Whelan, was honored last week as family, friends, attorneys, and judges came together to unveil her official portrait in the Riverhead courtroom she once presided over. The judge, who began her legal career in 1988 as an assistant Suffolk County attorney, passed away in 2022 after a valiant battle against cancer.
The stunning oil portrait, by artist Kevin McAvoy, will hang beside Surrogates of the past, including John M. Czygier, Jr., who attended the ceremony, along with the current judge, Vincent J. Messina, Jr., Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine, and a who’s who of judges that sit in various courts in both Suffolk and Nassau. Her husband, Thomas Whelan, a state Supreme Court supervising judge, and children, Joseph Whelan and Erin Meyers, were also on hand to remember the jurist.
Romaine reflected on the words of almost everyone who spoke at the ceremony, saying Judge Whelan was a “kind, compassionate person who was fair and just. She had an incredible impact on so many lives,” he said. “Everyone knew her as a truly good, genuine person.” Said retired Judge James Saladino, “Few judges come through who are as universally admired as Theresa Whelan.” District Administrative Judge Andrew A. Crecca added, “She never forgot that there were real people behind every case.”
Suffolk only has one Surrogate judge, who is elected to a 10-year term to handle wills, trusts, and estate matters. “Theresa spent every day improving the outcomes for families that appeared in her court,” said Caren Loguercio, Supervising Judge of the Family Court. “Her mediation program had a great success rate, and she was able to keep the court functioning through COVID,” the judge said, noting that the Surrogate’s is Suffolk’s busiest court. “She had a 24-hour rule: don’t act out in the heat of the moment.”
Whelan worked to provide remote access to temporary orders of protection. She was a catalyst of the FOCUS (Family Overcoming Crisis through Unified Services) initiative, a program that expedites access to services that address the trauma and developmental needs of children and parents in the court system. She also served as lead judge of the Suffolk County Child Welfare Court Improvement Project. In 2018, she was appointed to the New York State Commission on Parental Representation. Judge Whelan also served as chair of Suffolk County's Attorneys for Children Advisory Committee.
Her daughter, Erin, described her mother as “compassionate, kind, driven.” She added, “You could not be loved any better than what she expressed to me and my brother. She was my walking angel.”
Whelan, of Wading River, served for more than 10 years in family court and was the county's Surrogate judge from 2019 to 2022. A graduate of Albany Law School, she entered the court system in 1990 as a senior law clerk in Nassau County and went on to work as a principal law clerk in Suffolk. During her 17 years in the Supreme Court, she worked in nearly every part, including civil litigation, guardianship, tax certiorari, and condemnation cases, as well as matrimonial matters. She became a judge in 2008 after she was elected to a seat in Suffolk County Family Court, where she heard primarily child abuse and neglect cases and presided over Family Treatment Court. Judge Whelan retired in the summer of 2022, marking 32 years with the New York State court system. She is well-regarded for her commitment to improving court practices to better serve the needs of the public. She mobilized several initiatives that helped families and children, which expanded access to justice for all court users.
An active member of the Suffolk County Bar Association, Judge Whelan was co-chair of the Family Court Committee from 2013 to 2016, lectured for the association's law academy and other legal organizations, and was a member of the Attorney for Child Task Force. She was also a member of and past president of the Suffolk County Women's Bar Association. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Master of Science degree in Policy Analysis and Public Management from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. As accomplished as she was in the legal field, Judge Whelan was also an avid outdoorswoman who enjoyed hiking with her husband, running, biking, and kayaking at the beach, her family said. Her enthusiasm for life was infectious and inspiring, and she was a role model for many young women attorneys. She was a dedicated wife, mother, and grandmother, as well as a beloved daughter, sister, and aunt. To her peers and colleagues, she was a cherished friend and immeasurable colleague.