The Crummey family
maintained bakeries in Albany for more than 50 years, the bulk of it during the
late 1800s. Michael Crummey founded the
bakery, and his son Charles continued the family business with his son Edward
Crummey, class of 1910.
Edward was born on Eagle Street in 1886 across from the current
Governor’s Mansion; he delivered the baked goods for the business by horse and
carriage while a student at Christian Brothers Academy. He then went to
Georgetown University and Albany Law School, graduating from the law school in 1910.
With a tight job market in the Capital Region in 1910, Edward
went to a firm in Brooklyn, then New York's City Hall, working on
utility regulation. From there he worked with the Long Island Lighting
Company, which at the time was forming by consolidating the local power
companies. Edward retired years later as secretary and chief counsel.
The
Crummey bakery business ended in the early 1900s when no family member wanted to take
it on. Edward’s grandson
is Colonie Judge Peter Crummey '81, who has practiced law for the past 25-plus
years 200 feet from the family bakery location at Beaver and Lodge Streets, where he maintains
a general practice involving both civil and criminal representation.
“I
guess the Crummey's don’t fall far from the oven,” Judge Crummey quipped. His daughter Carol graduated from Albany Law
School in 2013 and now works for a longstanding firm in Albany, O'Connor, O'Connor,
Bresee & First P.C.
Judge Crummey
noted that the bakery location at the intersection of Beaver and Lodge streets
is now a parking lot. “Joni Mitchell was correct,” he said, “they paved
paradise and put up a parking lot."