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Former President Bill Clinton Leads Dignitaries at Ed Koch Funeral

Bloomberg Will Also Deliver Eulogy Monday

By Forward Staff

Bill Clinton will be there to tell Ed Koch one last time that he did just fine.

The former president will lead a parade of dignitaries at Monday’s funeral for the ex-New York mayor, who coined the phrase, ‘How’m I Doin’?’

Clinton will cut short an Asian trip to speak at the service at Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El, the New York Post reported. He will serve as a representative for President Obama, who will not be able to attend the star-studded event.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will also speak at the funeral, as well as Ido Aharoni, consul general of Israel in New York. Longtime friend John LoCicero are also expected to deliver eulogies, along with several family members.

Koch died of congestive heart failure Friday following a year of repeated hospitalizations.

Koch was credited with lifting New York from crushing economic crises to a level of prosperity that was the envy of other U.S. cities. Under his leadership, the city regained its financial footing and underwent a building renaissance.

But his three terms in office were also marked by racial tensions, corruption among many of his political allies, the rise in AIDS and HIV, homelessness and a high crime rate. In 1989, he lost the Democratic nomination for what would have been a record fourth term as mayor.

Bloomberg called Koch a quintessential New Yorker and one of the city’s great mayors.

“In elected office and as a private citizen, he was our most tireless, fearless, and guileless civic crusader,” Bloomberg said. “His spirit will live on not only here at City Hall, and not only on the bridge the bears his name, but all across the five boroughs.”

Tall and mostly bald, Koch had a quip for every occasion and once said he wanted to be mayor for life. He was the only U.S. mayor to have a bestselling autobiography that was turned into an off-Broadway musical.