Professor Robert Habl, a longtime faculty member who taught generations of Brooklyn Law School graduates, died Dec. 12, 2019. He was 83.

Habl joined the Brooklyn Law School faculty in 1963. After four decades of teaching, he retired in 2004. At the Law School, he taught classes in contracts, insurance law, and property. He was a graduate of St. John’s University and New York University School of Law, where he received his master’s degree in tax law. He served in the U.S. Army from 1962 to 1967. Before his academic career, he worked as in-house counsel for Pinkerton International and in private practice. He also was a visiting law professor at New York Law School and the University of South Carolina School of Law, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at the City College of New York.

Habl is remembered by generations of his former students for the lively anecdotes he used to illuminate classroom discussions, always beginning with, “It reminds me of a story…” Other “Habl-isms” former students would quote years later included, “He who trades his horse for a promise deserves to walk,” and “If you don’t know this, you don’t know anything.”

His expertise was highly valued and sought after by numerous government agencies. He served as a consultant to the New York City Transportation Administration and the New York City Board of Education, and as an arbitrator for the New York Civil Court.

Habl is survived by his wife, Margaret Sirot-Habl; his children, Robert, Kris, and Nicole ’99; and his grandchildren, Ava, Hartley, and Lily. He was predeceased by his first wife, Margaret D. Habl.