player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameGerard B. (Jeff)
LastnamePodesta
GenderMale
CountryUnited States of America
Date of birth1916-07-15
Place of birthHoboken, N.J., United States of America
Date of death2011-05-16
Place of deathMontclair, NJ, United States of America

About

Mr. Podesta was born in Hoboken, N.J., on July 15, 1916. He moved to Montclair at an early age and lived there and in Glen Ridge, N.J., until 1998. He graduated from Montclair Academy in 1935, attended the University of North Carolina, graduated from Princeton in 1939 with a B.A. in political science and the University of Virginia Law School in 1942 with an L.L.B. During World War II, Mr. Podesta served as a lieutenant in the amphibious command. From 1947 until his retirement in 1990, Mr. Podesta practiced law with his firm, Podesta, Myers and Crammond in Bloomingdale, N.J., specializing in land development, estates and municipal matters. He was a member of the Passaic County and N.J. bar associations and was licensed to practice before the Supreme Court. Sports played a major part throughout his life. At Montclair Academy, he captained the basketball and tennis teams and was an All-New Jersey in both sports. In college Mr. Podesta won seven consecutive university titles and was captain and No. 1 of Princeton's undefeated 1938 tennis team. Until 1942, summers were spent playing against the world's best at Forest Hills, Newport, Seabright and Southhampton, all of which earned him high national and sectional rankings. His favorite stories were about tennis lessons from the legendary Big Bill Tilden, when he beat Bobby Riggs in 1940 when Riggs was No. 1 in the world, and winning consecutive Eastern clay court titles in 1938 and 1939. Mr. Podesta is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; daughter, Karen; son, Jeffrey, and his three grandsons, Johnny and Bobby Borbone, and Nicolas Podesta.

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