BETHEL — Sam Yasgur may have been best known as the son of Max Yasgur - the beloved farmer who welcomed the masses to the 1969 Woodstock music festival - but to family, friends and associates, he was better known as a witty, fun-loving motorcyclist and a skilled, fiercely passionate litigator.

Then again, he never minded the constant association with his famous father.

“He had such a great love and respect for his father,” related close friend Dr. Edward Epstein.

Indeed, having grown up on the Yasgur dairy farm in Bethel, Sam was forking hay years before he was writing legal briefs.

“Sam always thought of himself as a farmer with a law degree,” affirmed Epstein.

Yet he almost didn't become an attorney.

In a speech to the Sullivan County Historical Society in 2004, Sam remembered the 1963 fire that claimed Max's main barn. After saving the 127 cows within, Sam visited his father in a Monticello hospital - the day before he was supposed to start law school in Chicago.

Sam had postponed his plans, but Max insisted he go right away, threatening to sell the farm if Sam did not.

“I built it [the farm] for you,” Sam recalled his father saying, “but that wasn't your dream, that was mine.

“I had the opportunity to live out my dream, now you're going to have the opportunity to live out yours.”

It was a stubbornness that Sam recognized, sharing that trait with his father.

“He meant it . . . that a parent shouldn't be a burden on a child,” said a tearful Sam. “I kind of cried halfway to Chicago, but I knew I'd really been blessed.”

Personal Eulogies

On Sunday, tears were shed for Sam, three days after he passed away from bone cancer at the age of 74.

Yet the gathering was as humorous and nostalgia-filled as Sam himself.

The service began with his son, Stuart, telling everyone that Sam's orders were to start the service with a song by Irish tenor John McDermott - “and we are going to play it loud!”

The tune, “The Old Man,” resonated with the audience and set the tone for a fond farewell to a man who had friends from all walks of life.

Daughter-in-law Sirine talked about Sam's courage in the face of a pernicious cancer he vigorously fought longer than anyone expected.

“These final years we spent together, Sam showed incredible strength and stamina,” she said. “And when he couldn't ride a motorcycle anymore, he rode an ATV.”

Family, though, was more important even than riding.

“Whenever anyone would ask him if I was his daughter-in-law, he corrected them vigorously: ‘She' s my daughter!'” Sirine remembered.

“He was a father to me, and I was a daughter to him,” she said. “Through all his love and grumpiness, he embraced me.”

Cousin and fellow lawyer Martin Miller said he and the “Thursday afternoon lunch group were truly going to miss Sam ... especially because it was his turn to buy!”

Miller remembered that Sam thought he might die a young man because his father passed away at an early age.

“He simply did not understand genetics,” Miller laughed, spouting off a host of Sam's relatives who lived well into their 90s.

"But he chose to live every day as if it was his last."

Sam ultimately did need to live life that way.

“It's almost exactly four years ago to the day that Sam told us he had cancer,” Stuart said. “We were getting a gift, and he had to choose what to do with the time we had.

"Pay attention, this time is precious.”

Stuart said Sam was a non-traditional father, never asking about grades or homework; instead, rousing Stuart out of bed at 4 a.m. to skip school and go skiing or spend an all-nighter in a New York City deli eating pastrami and listening to a comic.

Stuart remained grateful the day after the funeral.

“We came together to pay tribute to the many enduring gifts he gave us over the years: a sense of play, drama, and a zest for life; true grit, courage, and strength to the very end; and the rare ability to make the mundane special,” he told the Democrat.

“Whether he was litigating or riding his motorcycle or skiing or boating, he did everything with vigor and talent - but always in his own special, untraditional, and slightly idiosyncratic way.

“He is finally resting in his beloved home, Sullivan County, which he was so proud to serve for the last 12 years.”

Returning Home

Born in Monticello, Sam moved with his family to Bethel as a child, later quipping he learned the Berlin Wall actually ran through White Lake (referring to the sometimes vast differences between western and eastern Sullivan County).

Graduating from Cornell University in 1963 and then in 1966 with a law degree from the University of Chicago, he quickly became an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, then was promoted to bureau chief.

He prosecuted mob members and petty criminals, and loved relating tales of those times with close friends.

“Sam could sit down and tell stories you'd think came out of a book that he'd just memorized,” marvelled Epstein.

Eventually, Sam did write a book, though it was more about Max's life than his own.

After a stint as Westchester County's attorney (where he developed his love of boating, becoming active in the Coast Guard Auxiliary), he did return to Sullivan County, thanks to Miller, his first cousin.

“We literally grew up together,” Miller said, recalling that once both started practicing law, “we would pick each other's brains regularly.”

Sam was pondering a move to the Berkshires when Miller told him about Sullivan County's search for a new county attorney.

“It was tough convincing him,” he remembered. “... He was really anxious to spend a relaxing time - but that's not Sam's nature. ... He really liked being a public servant.”

And so in 2004 he was appointed Sullivan County Attorney, where he served until retiring this year. He represented the county amidst a slew of cases big and small, even enduring the intentional torching of his office in 2005 amidst the investigation of a major Public Works scandal. (No one was ever charged with setting the fire.)

Despite the nature of the job, “he was absolutely apolitical,” affirmed Miller.

Indeed, he served through both Democratic and Republican administrations.

“He was absolutely the best,” Miller stated. “He was hardworking, thorough - a very precise individual. He saved the county untold dollars, probably well into the seven figures.”

“The staff of the Sullivan County Attorney's Office extends its heartfelt sympathy to the family of Samuel Yasgur,” Sam's successor, Cheryl McCausland, wrote to the Democrat. “Sam was County Attorney from 2004 through 2015. He will be remembered for his brilliant legal mind and his excellent trial work.

“Those of us who worked with him also know how much he enjoyed telling stories of his life, especially those about his youth and growing up in Bethel. Sam always welcomed others to sit in his office and share these memories. He had a great sense of humor, too. We are grateful for the time we had with him,” McCausland added.

Sam worked closely with Jail Administrator Hal Smith, and an even closer friendship developed.

“Sam was a brilliant attorney who tirelessly defended the Sheriff's Office in numerous cases, and he always obtained a positive result,” Smith related. “While working on a case, it was not unusual for him to call or text me well past midnight.

“His performance and demeanor in Federal Court was one that was fascinating to watch,” he added. “However, when he won a case, he was a humble man who would never take the credit for himself.

“Even after all of his amazing accomplishments in life, what he took most pride in was the fact that he was a farmer's son.”