Reuben Landau, 103; called state's oldest practicing lawyer

Three years ago, Bill Landau wanted to retire, and who could blame him? He was in his early 70s and had been a lawyer since Eisenhower was in office.

One thing held him back. His father, Reuben, the senior partner in Landau & Landau, was closing in on 100 and practicing law every day.

" 'Dad, let's retire,' I tell him," Bill Landau said in a 2004 interview with The New York Times. "But he says, 'What would I doooooo?' Just like that. 'Doooooo.' How do you say no to a 100-year-old man? You can't."

Reuben Landau couldn't say no to work and was still reviewing documents a few hours a day in his Cambridge house until he became ill less than three weeks ago. At the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged in Roslindale, where he died Friday, he answered questions with comparative ease until his final moments, his son said.

Mr. Landau, who was 103, has often been called the oldest practicing lawyer in Massachusetts, and he probably was. State legal associations contacted yesterday did not have records to establish the distinction, but each said that the anecdotal evidence favored a man who had practiced law for 81 years.

Because Mr. Landau had been seriously ill only once before in his life, when he had a heart attack at 59, he had hoped to return home from the rehabilitation center, his son said. In a way, that heart attack may have contributed to Mr. Landau's longevity. He kept working afterward, but changed his life in many ways. He quit smoking, changed his diet, and walked each morning from his home off Harvard Square to his office in downtown Boston.

"I decided to slow down in my work and to avoid confrontation and tension and begin an exercise program," he told the Globe in 2002. In a separate interview last year, he added, "I followed all the rules."

Mr. Landau was born in Cambridge, the oldest of eight children in a family that moved to Chelsea when he was growing up. Finishing high school in three years, "he entered Tufts College at the tender age of 15 in September 1919," his son said.

As the oldest son, however, Mr. Landau had to help support his family and left Tufts after a year. He spent three years working as a piece worker making sheepskin collars, then went to the Boston University School of Law. Mr. Landau graduated in 1926, partway through Calvin Coolidge's presidency.

Six of the eight Landau siblings became lawyers and the other two "called themselves black sheep," he told Bostonia, Boston University's alumni quarterly, in 2005.

"The seventh one was a psychiatrist, and the eighth was an accountant," said his son, who lives in Brookline. "Since that generation, there are six more Landau lawyers, of which I am one."

Three generations of the family have attended BU's law school, which gave its top honor, the Silver Shingle, to seven Landaus in 1986 in recognition of their distinguished service to the school.

Last year, Mr. Landau attended the law school's commencement ceremony, eight decades after his own graduation.

"I am pleased to be here on my 80th reunion from the Boston University School of Law," said Mr. Landau, who was honored for lifetime achievement. "Indeed, my contemporaries would agree that, at this point, we are pleased to be anywhere."

He was 102 that day and walked to the podium without the assistance of a cane. Among the other things he didn't need were hearing aids and glasses, though at work he sometimes kept a pair sitting atop his bald head.

"I only wear them to keep the dust out of my eyes," he said in an interview conducted four years ago for the Perfect Balance Yoga website.

With a law practice focused on estates, estate planning, and trusts, Mr. Landau worked in a few different downtown Boston locations for more than 75 years before moving his work into his home about four years ago.

While in law school in the mid-1920s, a friend had introduced Mr. Landau to his sister, Frances Binstock. They married in 1929. His wife died in 1980.

Although longevity runs in his family, no one was as long-lived as Mr. Landau. His mother lived to 100, and three siblings made it into their 90s.

Mr. Landau, who went by his nickname, Ruby, did not view his advanced age as an accomplishment worth boasting about.

"I don't take any pride in my age," he told The New York Times in 2004. "What did I do? To be proud of it, I'd have to be able to attribute it to something I did."

Nevertheless, he enthusiastically took part in BU's New England Centenarian Study, appearing on news programs and CNN.

"He was kind of our celebrity," said Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the study. "As the oldest living practicing lawyer and just being so sharp and such a sage, he was great for reporters and for promoting this notion of healthy aging. It was always such a pleasure to go visit him, and it was remarkable how incredibly sharp he was until the end of his life. The study is so indebted to his family."

In addition to his son, Mr. Landau leaves a grandson.

A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow in the City of Cambridge Cemetery.