Professional Career and Government Service
He worked for Wall Street law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hope, Hadley & McCloy, then Hale, Stimson, Russell & Nickerson. Entering politics, he became the first Democrat to win a countywide seat in Nassau since 1912, when regular Republicans and the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party split the Republican vote. In his three three-year terms as county executive, Judge Nickerson took a more liberal approach than his Republican predecessors, often working to expand social services for the needy in what was then one of the nation's fastest-growing counties. He was an early advocate of environmental protection, expanded Nassau County's park system, recruited college graduates for the police force, and favored progressive zoning regulations to open up housing opportunities to minorities and the poor.
He later described his years in the post as reorienting government to concern itself with human beings and their problems. Pressed by Robert F. Kennedy, who recognized Mr. Nickerson's considerable political talents, he ran for the United States Senate in 1968 but lost in the Democratic primary.
The patrician Mr. Nickerson was occasionally seen as an unusual member of the Democratic Party. Referring to the man who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, Mr. Nickerson once explained, Adlai Stevenson turned me into a Democrat. I was active in his first campaign, and I stayed active. He brought in other people like myself who had intense interests about government, of ideals and principles.
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