Jerome D. Levine, age 74, of Camarillo, Calif., and formerly of Vernon, Conn., died on Oct. 29, 2020. He was the son of Rena (Smith) Levine and Morris Levine and was born in Muskegon, Michigan. He moved to Connecticut in 1962 and completed his last two years of high school at Newington High School, where he was a defensive co-captain of the 1963-64 football team, president of the Debate Club and a member of the National Honor Society. He was also a member of the initial honors program at the University of Connecticut, where he majored in and graduated with honors and distinction in Political Science. 

He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha (political science honor society) and Alpha Epsilon Pi, a social fraternity.  Jerry was also a member of the Board of Governors of the UConn Student Union and wrote news articles for the Daily Campus.  He graduated from the University of Connecticut Law School, where he was a member of the Law Review. Attorney Levine practiced for 35 years in Vernon, Connecticut – 22 years with a local law firm and 13 years as a sole practitioner. During that time he was the Vernon town attorney for two terms, successfully defending the town’s then juvenile nocturnal curfew with co-counsel in litigation in Federal Court and in the Connecticut Supreme Court.  In 2007, he was appointed a human rights referee, Office of Public Hearings, Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities by then-Governor M. Jodi Rell and was reappointed in 2010. Attorney Levine was a past member and president of the Tolland County Bar Association, member of the American Bar Association  and member of the Connecticut Bar Association and past member of its board of governors and house of delegates. He leaves his beloved wife, Marlynn Block of Camarillo, Calif.; his devoted stepson and daughter-in-law, Jonathan May and Lorelei Laird and their son, his treasured grandson Malachi of Culver City, Calif.; his sisters, Miriam Levine-Alcala and her husband, Manuel of Berkeley, Calif., and Laurie Zimmerman of Tucson; his niece, Shelby Zimmerman Irwin and her husband Rob, and grandnieces Indigo and Harper of Hamden, Conn.; his nephews Sam and David Alcala of Berkeley; his nephew Marc Zimmerman and his wife Robin and their children, Jeffrey and Cody Zimmerman, of Newington, Conn., and his niece Nicole Zimmerman and her husband Joe Thomas of Colorado. Jerry had two sons by a prior marriage, Seth and Joshua Levine, in the Boston area, two grandsons, Jacob and Samuel, and two granddaughters, Izzy and Makayla. While in Connecticut, he had been a member of Temple Beth Sholom/B’nai Israel and Temple B’nai Israel, where he had served as president of the Men’s Club. Jerry often entertained with a joke or story when meeting a new friend or acquaintance or when trying to ease an old friend’s sadness or pain. He was a kind, thoughtful and generous man and he will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved him. Memorial contributions may be made to the Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s Foundation, Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, IKAR Los Angeles Jewish Community or to a charitable cause of the donor’s choosing.