Honorable Hector Diaz ‘80 

Bronx County Clerk

Hector Diaz was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, moving to New York in 1958 with his parents and two younger brothers. After high school, Diaz served three years in the United States Army and was honorably discharged with the rank of Specialist 4th Class. Earning an associate's degree in Psychology from the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College of City University of New York, Diaz first came to Mercy College at the request of a friend who was studying at Mercy. After visiting the College, Diaz said, "I fell in love with the location, and the rest is historyl" As well as loving the location, Diaz also enjoyed the professors and his classes at Mercy, graduating cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Psychology.

He began his community-focussed career working at a methadone clinic in the South Bronx. He was able to put the knowledge he gained in that job to good use in 1984, after his election to the New York State Assembly, when he became chairman of the subcommittee on Substance Abuse, which did extensive research and policy analysis on substance abuse in the workplace. Many of the sub committee's recommendations have since become policy.

He is a former chair of the Bronx Venture Corporation, vice chairman of the South Bronx Mental Health Council, and vice president of the Puerto Rican Conference of Bronx County. He also represented Bronx County as Commissioner of the Board of Elections for the city of New York. In 1978, Assemblyman Diaz was elected Democratic District Leader for the 77th Assembly District. He served in this capacity until May 1983, when he won a special election to serve the unexpired term of the late assemblyman, Louis Niner and was re-elected six times after that.

In 1992, he chaired the committee on Ethics and Guidance. He is currently the chairman of the committee on Cities, the subcommittee on Bilingual Education and the Puerto Rican Hispanic Task Force. He also serves on the Ways and Means, Rules Education, Mental Health, Social Services and Election Law committees. In 1996, Diaz was appointed by the Supreme Court Appellate Division as County Clerk of Bronx County 1980.