Doris “Dorie” Miller (1919 – 1943), was a World War II hero who shot down several enemy planes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was the first African American recipient of the Navy Cross for valor. Miller joined the US Navy on September 19, 1939, at age 19 and was assigned to the Messman Branch. At the time, African Americans were limited to positions on supply ships. The easy-going serviceman was described as an impressive 200 lbs., and over 6 feet tall. On December 7, 1941, he was assigned as a Mess Attendant aboard the ammunition supply ship Pyro anchored in Pearl Harbor. In the Japanese attack that day, the Pyro was struck by at least six torpedoes and two bombs. Miller, leaving his post, raced to his ship commander Captain Mervyn Bennion, who was mortally wounded. After helping move the captain to a safer place, Miller, in the midst of bombing and a flame-swept deck, proceeded to help pass ammunition to two machine gun positions. When one of the gunners was killed, Miller took over his position and he downed at least two Japanese planes and as many as six. Shortly after, he was ordered to leave the bridge as bombing and danger increased. Dorie Miler was awarded the Navy Cross by Admiral Chester W. Nmitz to become the first US Hero of WW II and the first African American to receive the Navy's highest award. Two years later, on November 24, 1943, Miller was among more than seven hundred crew members who died in the sinking of the USS Liscombe Bay, torpedoed by an enemy submarine. In his honor, the Navy named a Knox class frigate ship the USS Miller. In December 1953, the first of three hundred families moved into the six buildings of the Dorie Miller Housing Cooperative. 34th Avenue between 112th and 114th is known as Dorie Miller Place.

In honor of Veterans Day, we are highlighting a few of the many public spaces in Queens named after veterans, some of whom emerged as community leaders.

Millie Rigoli (1923-2024) was a beloved centenarian who actively served her community of Bayside for over 50 years. She volunteered at P.S. 159, the Board of Elections the Department of Education, the Selfhelp Clearview Senior Center, St. Josaphat’s Church, and Blessed Sacrament Church, where she taught in the Religious Education Program for over 25 years. She also served as a board member of the Church's Senior Citizens Center. P.S.159 is located at 205-01 33rd Avenue in Bayside, NY, between 205th Street and Clearview Expressway Service Road. Millie Rigoli Way is at the intersection of 33rd Avenue and 205th Street, by the school where Millie made a lasting impact with her years of dedicated service.

Christina Galas (1933-1982) was the vice president of Beach Channel High School's Parent’s Association.

Dennis Syntilas (1929-2015) founded the Greek-American Homeowners Association and helped create Athens Square, a park and amphitheater that features sculptures of Greek philosopher Socrates and the goddess Athena. The Greek-American Homeowners Association continues today to connect and engage Greek American property owners in community and government services.

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Frank Strassfeld (1922-1998) was born in Poland on December 26, 1922, and migrated to the United States in 1935. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the 11th Airborne Division in World War II, he became active in the Hollis Hills Jewish Center, where he ultimately took charge of religious activities and daily services, devoting 49 years of his life to the community. In addition, he volunteered his time at the Samuel Field YM-YWCA and at Booth Memorial Hospital Silvercrest Convalescent Home. Strassfeld died on November 11, 1998. In recognition of his many years of service to the Hollis Hills Jewish Center and to Queens County, the block of Union Turnpike between 210th and 211th Streets, located in front of the synagogue, was co-named Reverend Frank Strassfeld Turnpike.

Msgr McGinness was a US Army chaplain who served in the South Pacific, and was killed on Okinawa on April 24, 1945 at age 38. Before entering priesthood, he resided with his parents at Woodhaven, near this triangle.

Joseph Albergo was one of the most active residents of Rosedale for half a century. He serve as Treasurer of Community Board 13 and President of Community School Board 29 and was a member of the Rosedale Ambulance Corps, the Rosedale Civic Association, the Rosedale Lions Club and the Rosedale Nutrition Club.

Monsignor Joseph A. Martusciello (1928-2004) was born in Brooklyn and was ordained in 1954. In 1984, he was appointed as Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle church in Woodhaven, where he served until his retirement in 1999. While at St. Thomas, one of Martusciello’s major achievements was a renovation program that raised $800,000 for parish improvements.

Edward Hart was among the founding patentees or incorporators of what is now called Flushing, Queens. It had the previous name of Flushing Creeke by the original inhabitants who lived there, the Matinecock people, part of the larger Algonquin nation. While the Matinecock people are said to have sold land to the Dutch, there was also documented violence against them prior to this, as well as a smallpox epidemic that devastated the community years later in 1652. Members of the Matinecock tribe remain in Queens today. Hart was an open follower of the Quaker faith, and due to this faced persecution and imprisonment by Gov. Pieter Stuyvesant. As a part of his practice, Hart was the cleric and a signer of the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657 that preached a level of religious tolerance after Gov. Stuyvesant passed laws fining and restricting the immigration of Quakers. This document stated that " if any of these said persons come in love unto us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give them free egress and regress unto our Town."

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William Haberle was an active member of the Rosedale community. He was one of the founders of the Rosedale Civic Association. Haberle was serving his second term as president of the association at the time of his death in 1953. One of his main concerns in the community was overcrowding and lack of sufficient schools. At the time (1950s), some children in Rosedale had to attend schools in neighboring communities. To solve this, Haberle fought to have a new elementary school built. The school, P.S. 195, was approved and completed after his death. The Rosedale Civic Association petitioned to have the school named after him to honor his efforts.

Father Andrew L. Struzzieri (1947-2020) was born in Brooklyn and was affectionately known by many as Father Andy. He spent 50 years of his life living the gospel by reaching out to those in need. Father Andrew served as an assistant at Our Lady of Mercy, Forest Hills, 1975-76, and St. Matthew, Crown Heights, 1976-88. He was pastor at Our Lady of Refuge, Flatbush, 1988-99, and St. Matthew’s, 1999-2012. While at St. Matthew’s, he also served as administrator of Our Lady of Charity, Brownsville. After years of serving in Brooklyn, Father Andrew was transferred to Saint Clare Roman Catholic Church in Southeast Queens in 2012, where he was assigned and served as Pastor until his death. He used his opportunity as the leader of the largest Catholic Church in Rosedale as an opportunity to inspire parishioners to challenge injustices. During the COVID pandemic, he led a distribution at St. Clare’s for individuals who were food insecure. Under his leadership, the church built a strong youth ministry and took an aggressive community service position. He was instrumental in aligning St. Clare’s Church with Queens Power, a community organizing institution formerly known as EQUAL. In 2015, the parishioners organized their first campaign with over one hundred attendees, fighting for a traffic sign on Brookville Blvd in Rosedale, and they have continued to organize and demand justice for themselves and the communities they live in. During the summer of 2020, the parishioners rallied and protested the injustice of African Americans. After his death, the Rev. Andrew L. Struzzieri Memorial Endowment Fund was established to honor the memory of Father Andy. The fund provides for new household furnishings for newly arrived refugees, medical assistance, grocery gift cards and tuition costs for short-term vocational training programs.

Corporal Robert Marcus Rodriguez (1982 – 2003) was born in Brooklyn, and grew up on 59th Drive in Maspeth, Queens. In 1999 after graduating from high school he joined the Marine Corps at the age of 17. He was deployed to Kuwait in January 2003 and assigned to the Marine First Tank Division, Air/Ground Combat Unit. On March 25, 2003, the tank in which he traveled with three other marines, fell under heavy artillery fire and was forced off a bridge into the Euphrates River. All four men in the tank were killed, Corporal Rodriguez was 21 years old.

John Henry Byas, Sr. (1934-2020) was a community activist, tenants rights advocate, and a long-serving member of Community Board 7 in Flushing. He advocated for over 30 years for the construction of a modern public restroom at the Rachel Carson Playground in his neighborhood, which finally opened in 2013. Byas was born on November 18, 1934, in South Carolina where he grew up on a farm. At the age of 13, he obtained his driver’s license, and he worked driving a school bus while in high school. He served in the United States Navy from 1953 to 1957 and then moved to Harlem. In 1974, he settled in Flushing with his wife, Johnnie Mae. After working 41 years as elevator supervisor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, he retired in 2000. He became active in the Flushing community shortly after moving to an apartment on Colden Street where he raised three children and lived for the rest of his life. He founded and became president of the University Park Tenants Association and organized other tenant associations in nearby buildings. He took note of the need for a comfort station at the Rachel Carson Playground on Colden Street near his home, not only to serve families and their children who played there, but also to prevent people from seeking relief outside his building. So he began what became a 30-year quest to have a bathroom installed. He joined Community Board 7 in 1992, in part to advocate for its installation, and he ended by serving on the Board for 16 years. In 2008, then-Councilman John Liu allocated the funds for its design and construction, and the Rachel Carson Comfort Station opened to the public on April 5, 2013. An enthusiastic community supporter, Byas served as the director of the Rachel Carson Community Program at I.S. 237, which includes basketball, computer classes, step dancing, a game room, and English as a Second Language classes for adults and kids. He served as a Pastor’s Aid at Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church and on the 109th Precinct Community Council, and he was also on the board of directors for New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital, then known as Booth Memorial Hospital. Byas died on October 29, 2020, and was survived by his wife Johnnie Mae, and three children, Clyde, Dana, and John, Jr., as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The intersection of Colden Street and 45th Avenue in Flushing, near the apartment where he lived and the Rachel Carson Comfort Station he fought for, is named in his honor as John Henry Byas, Sr. Way.

Sergeant Thomas F. J. O’Grady (1879 - 1916) served in the New York Police Department for 12 years, until his death in 1916. While responding to a report of a stabbing at Dexter Park in Woodhaven, his horse slipped on cobblestones. O’Grady was subsequently thrown from his horse and the horse fell on top of him. Four days later, he succumbed to his injuries in Saint Mary’s Hospital. He had been assigned to the Mounted Squad at the Richmond Hill (102nd) Precinct. In 2018, O’Grady’s name was added to the State of New York Police Officers Memorial in Albany, NY. The street co-named in O'Grady's honor in 2024 is near the site of his fatal accident.

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Technical Sergeant Thomas J. Davey (1919-1945) was a resident of Queens County. He served his country during World War II and was killed in action on January 17, 1945. The United States Army honors his service with the Technical Sergeant Thomas J. Davey Triangle. This park is also known as Cowbird Triangle and was once called Alexander Triangle.

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Joseph Schmidt (d. 2004) served in the United States Military during WWII. He was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, “The Big Red One” and was shipped to Tunisia, North Africa for his first campaign of heavy fighting. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for exemplary conduct in ground combat. His next mission was the invasion of Sicily. On June 6, 1944, he landed on Omaha Beach and was promoted from Private to Sergeant on that day. On July 21, 1944, he received his second bronze star by crossing over open terrain under enemy machine gunfire to rescue a seriously wounded member of his squad. He received a citation for the Silver Star, on October 15, 1944, by assaulting an enemy Pillbox, crossing open terrain under heavy fire and placing dynamite near steel door structures. When German soldiers realized they were trapped, they surrendered. He then fought in the Battle of The Bulge and was awarded his fifth Purple Heart on January 28, 1945. During his wartime service, he was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star with cluster, Purple Heart with 4 clusters, Bronze Arrowhead, Distinguished Unit Badge, European African-Middle Eastern Service, Medal Combat Infantry Badge and six Battle Stars. He is buried in Calverton Cemetery.

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Louis M. Bornstein (1904-1972) was a resident the Rockaways for 61 years. He was affiliated with the Rockaway Board of Trade and the Chamber of Commerce, the Peninsula Hospital Center, Amerian Arbitration Association, Rockaway Lawyers Club and Knights of Pythias and was a charter member and first president of the Rockaway Rotary Clubs.

Detective Vito T. Navarra (1943-2023) began his career in the NYPD as a patrol officer and eventually achieved the rank of first grade detective. On April 14, 1972, he and his partner, Patrol Officer Phillip Cardillo, responded to what would later be determined to be a false call about an officer in distress. The officers arrived at the location, the Nation of Islam Mosque in Harlem, and they entered to investigate. While inside, both officers were severely beaten, and Cardillo was shot with his own gun, dying six days later. A suspect was later arrested, but no conviction was obtained, and the case remains open to this day. Navarra completed 27 years of service in the NYPD before he retired in 1995. Navarra was the son of Thomas and Mary Navarra and the third of their three children. His father was a butcher, and his mother was originally from Italy. In the early 1950s, the family lived in Queens Village. In 1963, Navarra married Ann Elizabeth Horlebein, and they had two children together, AnnMarie and Laura. After working for a period as a truck driver, Navarra joined the NYPD on October 25, 1968. He was assigned to the 28th Precinct in Harlem, and he was partnered with Cardillo. In 1974, Navarra was promoted to detective, earning second grade in 1987 and first grade in 1993. He worked in the Special Victims Unit in Queens until his retirement in 1995. He was then appointed as an investigator for the District Attorney’s Office, where he was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau, before his final retirement in 2002. His wife, Ann, owned and operated a hair salon for a period in Williston Park, Long Island. The couple eventually lived in Toms River, New Jersey, and Venice, Florida, and Ann predeceased her husband in 2022. On his death in 2023, Navarra was survived by his daughters as well as several grand- and great-grandchildren. On May 10, 2025, a dedication ceremony was held to co-name the intersection of 28th Avenue and Ulmer Street (northeast corner), in front of the New York Police Academy in College Point, as Detective Vito Navarra Way. This tribute joins a previous honor from 2015, when the southeast corner of the same intersection was co-named for Cardillo as Ptl. Phillip Cardillo Way, reuniting the fellow officers and partners at a place symbolic of their service.

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Chanta Monique Howard (d. 2019) was a community activist and president of the Redfern Housing Advisory Board. Howard was a pillar of the NYCHA Redfern Housing community, especially for youth – she served as manager of the Stack Angels Dance group, co-founded the Rockaway Female Softball league, organized barbeque events and provided free school supplies for students. She also founded the annual “White Affair” event that honored local individuals who perished as a result of gun violence or sickness, and organized the “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” event to honor all the seniors in the development by providing certificates labeled as Redfern Heroes. The 48-year-old mother of three passed away in March 2019.

Brother Ralph Clifford, O.S.F., was born in the Bronx as Rodger Clifford in 1930 and was educated at St. Anthony of Padua in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. After graduating from St. Francis Prep in 1948, he entered the Franciscan Brothers, taking the name Brother Ralph on August 18, 1948. He was professed on August 19, 1949. Brother Ralph received a B.S. degree from Fordham University and an M.S. from St. John’s University. In 1997, he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from St. Francis College. He taught at St. Francis Xavier and Our Lady of Good Counsel schools in Brooklyn and St. Joseph’s in Babylon, Long Island. He was principal of St. Brigid’s Elementary School from 1961 to 1967, and was appointed assistant principal of St. Francis Prep in 1967. He also served as a member of St. Francis College's Board of Trustees for more than 30 years. Br. Ralph was said to have changed students’ lives by just standing outside and talking to them. He was beloved by many students for taking the time to listen to them not just about school but about their lives or any problems they were having. Brother Ralph Clifford died on November 30, 2002, from post-operative complications.

William Steinway (1835–1896), born Wilhelm Steinweg, was a German-American piano manufacturer and former president of Steinway & Sons. The company was founded by William's father, Henry E. Steinway, shortly after the family moved from Germany to New York City in the early 1850s. William took over Steinway & Sons in the 1870s after the death of his father and two of his brothers. Steinway was a generous patron of the New York opera and orchestra companies, as well as touring European musicians. His investments in the arts and innovative print advertisements led to the construction of Steinway Hall in Manhattan and other halls worldwide. In the 1870s, Steinway relocated the company's operations to what is now northern Astoria, Queens, after purchasing a home, Steinway Mansion, and the surrounding property to establish a company town, Steinway Village. The Steinway Mansion and Steinway Piano Factory still stand, and many nearby buildings bear the Steinway name. As one of New York City's leading industrialists, Steinway's developments included the transportation industry. One of his former resorts east of Astoria became LaGuardia Airport; he was a partner in the American production of Daimler AG/Maybach cars, and served as head of the New York Subway Commission. Steinway wanted to expand his Steinway Railway Company, a trolley system for his workers under the East River. Steinway died in 1896 before the completion of tunnels and subway line. The Steinway Tunnels under the East River and the Astoria subway station Steinway St were named in his honor.

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Alfonso C. "Big Al" Stabile (1947-2015) was a New York City Council member from 1994 to 2001, representing the 32nd district, which includes Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Hamilton Beach, Lindenwood, Broad Channel, and the Rockaways. Born in East New York, Stabile grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, and graduated from John Adams High School. After serving in the military, he worked for the New York Department of Sanitation before entering politics. In addition to being a councilman, Stabile was a member of Community Board 10 and a Vietnam War veteran. He raised money for several charitable organizations, served as president of the Ozone-Howard Little League, and co-founded Angels on the Bay, a nonprofit dedicated to helping chronically ill and disabled children. Stabile was an active community member in countless ways and ran as the Republican and Conservative candidate for Queens Borough President in 2001.

Gladys Warren founded the Hollis Local Development Corporation, in 1979. Hollis LDC is a civic group aiming to preserve small businesses on Hollis Avenue, prevent residential overdevelopment, and combat crime in the neighborhood.

Beverly Baxter (1960-2009) wrote the column, “On the Beach” for the Rockaway Wave newspaper and participated in many local community organizations including the Queens County Parade Committee, the Rockaway Republican Club, the Rockaway Homeowners Association and the Rockaway Action Committee. Ms. Baxter was also instrumental in starting the Rockaway Music and Arts Festival.

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Edgar Moya (d. 2023) was a dedicated member of his community in Corona. Originally from Ecuador, he immigrated to the United States with his wife, Maria, and settled in Queens. He was drafted into the Army, served in combat in Nha Thang, Vietnam, from 1965 to 1966, and was honorably discharged as Private First Class. While attending City University of New York, Moya worked two jobs to support himself, as a clerk on Wall Street and as a shoe seller at Alexander’s department store in Flushing. After graduating with honors, he began a career in finance. He served his community as part of several organizations, including as President of Lions Club Sur American, as a member of Corona Lions Club, on the Elmhurst Hospital Advisory Board, and as a founding member of Corona Gardens Neighborhood Association, a group that works to fund beautification projects, organize neighborhood clean-ups, and also offers community support on immigration issues, public safety, health care, education, and housing. For his service, Moya was awarded the Molly Parnis “Dress Up Your Neighborhood” Award. His son, Francisco, who participated in the group beginning at age 15, went on to serve in the New York State Assembly from 2011 to 2017, and for two terms on the New York City Council for the 21st District, beginning in 2018. In the aftermath of the 2016 earthquake in Ecuador, Moya helped to mobilize relief efforts for people in need. To recognize his work, the Lions Club honored him as Lion of the Year. In addition, Congressman Joseph Crowley of the 14th Congressional District appointed him to the Veterans Advisory Board and honored him with a Congressional Proclamation for Hispanic Heritage Month for his military service and community efforts. Queens Borough President Melinda Katz also honored Moya for his outstanding contributions to the Queens Community. Moya died on October 2, 2023, and was survived by his wife, Maria, and sons, Ed and Francisco. The intersection of 102nd Street and 46th Avenue in Corona, near the home where Moya raised his family, is co-named in his honor

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Lois Sanders (1922-2003) moved to Far Rockaway with her husband in 1955. She became active in the First Church of God and held various positions. At the National Ushers’ Convention in 1989, she was honored for her dedication to the ministry of ushering. Her life was chronicled by Ann Morris in the book, Grandma Lois Remembers.

Cecil K. Watkins (1929-2009) was a leader in sports and community recreation who was recognized nationally for his knowledge and success in establishing sports league programs and events for youth in major urban and suburban areas. His lengthy career helped to provide countless young people with outlets for growth and expression through participation in athletics. Watkins was born in Harlem on December 13, 1929. In high school, he earned varsity letters in both baseball and basketball. After serving in the United States Army for two years, he married Valerie Morgan in 1963. In 1965, he co-founded Elmcor Youth and Adult Activities, Inc., a nonprofit community service organization serving the neighborhoods of East Elmhurst, Corona, and Jamaica. Watkins was the executive director, and according to the organization’s website, Elmcor is now “the longest, continuously-operating Black-led and Black-founded organization in Queens.” In 1968, he moved his family to East Elmhurst where they lived for 10 years, eventually settling in Westbury, New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1975, and a master’s in 1986, both from Adelphi University, where he studied sports administration and management. His career included serving as director of recreation of New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation, where he co-founded the U.S. Youth Games for the city. By 1978, he had joined the staff of the National Basketball Association, where he served for 18 years, working in various roles including observer scout, referee recruiter, assistant supervisor of officials, and director of community and special programs. Watkins also served as governor and boys basketball chairman of the New York Metropolitan Amateur Athletic Union, an organization that develops and promotes sports programs for participants of all ages. He was president and CEO of the National Pro-Am City Leagues Association, a nonprofit community service organization that develops and administers sports league programs and sporting events in major urban and suburban areas across the country. Over a four-decade career, his work helped more than 1,800 student athletes in the New York metro area to acquire scholarships. Among his many honors, Watkins was named the “Father of Community Recreation” by the National Recreation Association in 1970. In addition, he received the Queensborough President’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Basketball Congress International Commissioner of the Year Award. He was inducted into both the New York State and New York City Basketball Halls of Fame, as well as at Adelphi University and Elmcor. In 2007, he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Adelphi University He died on October 10, 2009, from complications from pancreatic cancer and was survived by his wife, Valerie, two daughters, and two grandchildren. Cecil K. Watkins Street is located at the intersection of 95th Street and Astoria Boulevard in his former neighborhood of Elmhurst and about a mile from Elmcor, the nonprofit he co-founded.

Pamela Jean Mascaro lived in Forest Hills with her husband and 3-year-old daughter. On Christmas night 1992, while the family was on the Grand Central Parkway, driving home from a Christmas dinner, Ms. Mascaro was killed by a shot fired from a nearby car. The suspect, a convicted burglar, was arrested in 1998, just moments after being released from prison on another charge. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 5 to 15 years for the killing.

The Reverend Dr. Eldridge Gittens born and raised in New York City. He attended Haaren High School and Shelton College before serving in the United States Army during World War II. In 1955, at a meeting held in his Jamaica, New York home, Rev. Gittens and eleven others founded the Rush Temple African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Today, the Church is a pillar in the Queens community it serves. Its active congregation, under the leadership of its wise, patient and congenial pastor, embraces all who come. Among its many community programs are such needed activities as a food pantry for the hungry, a clothing distribution program, scouting, academic tutoring, family counseling, housing development, an addiction recovery program, a youth choir and, of course worship. Rev. Gittens for more than 40 years was committed to improving the lives of people in the community.

Rev. James R. Moore attended Columbia University then attained a Doctor of Divinity Degree from Virginia Theological Seminary and College. He became pastor of Amity Baptist Church of Jamaica in 1928, and remained in this position for 55 years.

Lucy Schilero (1952-2022) was a longtime member of Community Board 4, representing parts of Corona and Elmhurst. In 1986, she founded and became President of the Coalition of United Residents for a Safer Community, which included members of the 43rd Avenue Block Association and tenant associations. With these coalitions, she circulated petitions to advocate for her community. Born on July 18, 1952, Schilero was a resident of Elmhurst. She was the Chief of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Community Board 4 and was trained in community organizing skills, such as effective outreach, public information campaigns, and building a strong, long-lasting community volunteer group. Also serving as chair of Community Board 4’s Public Safety Committee, she informed, educated, and trained her neighbors on disaster preparedness and assisted public safety agencies and local Community Boards with public events. Schilero also assisted in the response to local disasters and supported emergency personnel upon their arrival and request. She died on February 5, 2022. Lucy Schilero Way is located on the border of Elmhurst and Corona at the intersection of Junction Boulevard and 43rd Avenue, in the heart of the communities Schilero served.

Fred Wilson (1929 – 1984) was a civic leader in Rochdale Village, Democratic District Leader of the 32nd Assembly District, and active member of the Council of Black Elected Democrats of New York State. Born Wilfred Wilson in Harlem to Siefert and Winifred Wilson, he received his diploma from Commerce High School and studied liberal arts at the City University of New York. Mr. Wilson enlisted in the United States Army, and received an honorable discharge in August 1953, upon which he embarked on a successful career in the newspaper business, rising to become production supervisor for the New York Herald Tribune. Fred Wilson married Currin Jones in September 1955 and had two children, they moved into the Rochdale Village Cooperative in Jamaica when it opened in the early 1960s. Mr. Wilson became significantly involved with his community, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of Rochdale Village and as president of the Rochdale Village Black Society. He was involved in the education of his children, and he became an active member of the local PTA. Mr. Wilson was also a member of the Pride of Jamaica Lodge 217. In 1972, Fred Wilson was elected Democratic District Leader of the 32nd Assembly District and served in that capacity for twelve years, in what even then was a very diverse area. As a party official, he was an active member of the Council of Black Elected Democrats of New York State. He quickly became a respected member of the Queens County Democratic Party Executive Committee. Under Mr. Wilson’s leadership, the 32nd A.D. Regular Democratic Club became a major political force in the Southeast Queens community. Candidates for all levels of public office learned that the 32nd had a reputation for “delivering the vote” and vigorously sought the club’s endorsement. A number of community organizations held meetings and functions there, and residents from the surrounding area frequently came into Mr. Wilson’s club seeking help for various problems. In 1976, Fred Wilson became known as “Hollywood Fred” when he was selected by the Democratic National Committee to be flown to Hollywood to be featured in a film that was presented at the Democratic National Convention in New York; he looked upon this event as one of the major highlights of his career. Mr. Wilson listened to the concerns of his constituents, and took everyone’s problems to heart. Fred Wilson encouraged young people to volunteer in the community, and spent many hours working side by side with young folks. Fred also gave special attention to getting young people involved in the political process. He knew that the vote could affect change.

Jermaine L. Green originally founded P.S. 354Q as a K to 2 school in 2011 (the school, which has since been named in his honor, now serves students from 3K to grade 5). He was chosen to serve as its principal following his time as an assistant principal at P.S. 121 in South Ozone Park, when the new school was created to take the place of a struggling school. Green, who passed away in 2013, envisioned a school of students who were strong readers and writers who engage critically with science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. This is the guiding light of the school today, whose mission is for students to become self-sufficient and independent thinkers through collaborative discussions, cross-curricular activities, and STEM activities.

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Walter Francis Bishop Jr. (1927-1998) was an American jazz pianist raised in Harlem. Bishop Jr.'s career spanned from the later 1940s to the early 1990s. Resulting in almost 50 years of music. Bishop Jr. was the son of drummer, composer, and songwriter Walter Bishop Sr., a Jamaican emigrant who came to New York to start a professional music career. Due to this, Bishop Jr. started piano at an early age. Influenced by jazz musicians Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Nat King Cole, Bishop Jr. became interested in jazz music. Bishop Jr. dropped out of high school to pursue jazz. At the time his friends included other future jazz musicians Kenny Drew, Sonny Rollins, and Art Taylor. From 1945 to 1947 Bishop Jr. served in the Army Air Corps, stationed near St. Louis. During his service he met touring bebop artists who would further influence his style. Later in 1947, Bishop Jr. returned to New York where he incorporated bebop into his jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse. In 1949 he began recording with other artists such as Milt Jackson and Stan Getz. He continued recording with other artists into the 50s. Around this time he also ran into issues with drug addiction, though he was eventually able to get clean . In the late 1950s Bishop Jr. converted to Islam and adopted the name Ibrahim ibn Ismail, although he never used it publicly. In 1961 Bishop Jr. released his debut album "Speak Low" as the leading artists. The album was released with a trio consisting of himself, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer G.T. Hogan. He continued releasing music featuring other artists until the 1990s. In addition to recording music, Bishop Jr. taught music theory at several colleges in Los Angeles in the 70s after studying at Juilliard in the late 60s. He then moved back to New York in 1975 where he wrote a book on jazz theory called, A Study in Fourths. In the 80s he began to teach at University of Hartford, Connecticut. Throughout this time he never stopped performing. Continuing until a few years before his death in 1998, which was the result of a heart attack. The last album he released was "Speak Low Again" in 1993.

Benjamin Wright Jr. moved to New York City in 1950. He was employed by the City of New York for 27 years, retiring as Assistant Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) in 1996. After retirement, he founded and served as chairman Green World Unlimited, Inc., and spent the rest of his life organizing and working with community organizations in Southeast Queens. He served as president of the Southeast Queens Democratic Club, president of the Thurgood Marshall Regular Democratic Club, chairman of the board of the S.G.G.C. Community Service Agency, an afterschool program providing tutoring and free meals five days a week, and served on Queens Community Board 12. He was a lifelong member of the NAACP and was a board member and treasurer of the Jamaica Branch. He was also a board member of the United Black Men of Queens where he served as vice president and treasurer; was a member of the Advisory Board of the Emblem Health Insurance Plan; the York College Community Advisory Committee; the administrative board of the Springfield Gardens United Methodist Church; and served as administrator of a GED Program for Adolescents in the Riker’s Island Correctional Institution for Women.

Giuseppa Vendome (1923-2024) known as “Mama” among 9/11 recovery workers, was born in Sant Angelo dei Lombardi, in southern Italy. She migrated to the United States, along with her husband Rocco and their 2 children: Gennaro and Antonio, in 1955. She worked, at various times, as a candy maker, a tailor and owner and manager of real estate and restaurants. In the wake of the September 11th attacks she, Rocco, and Antonio “Nino” expanded service at Nino's Restaurant on Canal Street and served over a million meals to the rescue and recovery personnel. Over the following nine months, they kept the Restaurant open, sometimes 24 hours a day, to serve her famous meatballs to the Police, Firefighters, FBI, Secret Service, soldiers, sanitation workers, and other workers at Ground Zero. To honor her, Mayor Eric Adams proclaimed September 10, 2022 as Giuseppa Vendome Day. She is survived by Gennaro and wife Carol, Antonio and fiancé Candida, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. According to her obituary "Giuseppa leaves behind a legacy of love, resilience, and unwavering devotion to family. She will be deeply missed by all who were fortunate enough to know her."

Melvin Harris Jr. was a union representative, community leader and a former aide to Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano. As a young man, he started a youth group for the purpose of steering his peers away from the drug gangs in southeast Queens. He continued this work in his adult years working with such community leaders as the late Dr. Charles Mixon, pastor of the Maranatha Baptist Church of Queens Village, and other clergy to oppose the widespread drug violence and crack dealing on the streets of his community. To accomplish this, he helped unite the civics and clergy in the group “Concerned Citizens Against Drugs” in collaboration with Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward. Harris was also very active in the Jamaica Branch of the NAACP in its fight for better schools, safer streets and concerned candidates for elected office. He organized a group of ardent social justice supporters, “People United Against Brutality,” which opposed the systematic stopping and searching by the police of innocent schoolchildren and pedestrians. In 1987, Harris joined Local 1056 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represented the public bus drivers in Queens. He became the Local’s political director and the union representative for the Queens Depot. As such, he not only attended and participated in civic-sponsored meetings on improving public transportation in southeast Queens but had a significant role in the preparation of a union contract that had national implications because of its trail-blazing benefits. Harris later moved to Uniondale in Nassau County, where he served as a public liaison for the County Executive and was appointed Commissioner of the Nassau County Human Rights Commission. He was also the president of the Hempstead chapter of the NAACP from 2012 to 2014. In 2019, Harris was honored with the designation of a portion of Front Street in Uniondale as Melvin Harris Jr. Way.

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Father John J. Murray served as the Associate Pastor at the American Martyrs Roman Catholic Church for 14 years. Murray, was beloved by the community and well-regarded for his work with those suffering from alcoholism and other addictions, including those of other faiths.

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Stephen A. Halsey (1798-1875) was known as the “Father of Astoria.” He was a wealthy fur trader who bought a large swathe of land along the East River. He incorporated the village in 1839 and changed the name to Astoria, after his mentor: the millionaire John Jacob Astor.

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Shirley N. Moore (1995-1997) served for more than 15 years on Community Board 12 and was a founding member of the Southeast Queens Community Corporation. As a Jamaica NAACP Board Member, she fought against injustice in education and social policies.

Pauline LeBlond (1918-2006) was a retired schoolteacher and ardent preservationist who lived in Ridgewood, Queens. As president of the Stockholm Street Block Association, she spearheaded the effort to achieve historic status for the street, which culminated in the creation of the Stockholm Street Historic District. Born in NH she graduated from Brooklyn College in the late 1930s, and then began work as a Catholic school teacher in Woodhaven. She married Marcelle LeBlond in 1948 and later had a son. After the tragic loss of her son at age 28, LeBlond dedicated herself to her community and public service.

Janice Fenster (1945-2023)  was born and raised in the Bronx where she received her early education at a Hebrew Jewish Girl School housed at Mosholu Jewish Center. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology at Queens College (CUNY) and later, a Master of Science degree in Early Childhood Education. She relocated to the Borough of Queens and the Richmond Hill neighborhood, which she called her home for most of her adult life and served as a New York City public school teacher until her retirement. She specialized in early childhood education with emphasis on special education and later served as a resource room teacher at a local high school. She served as Vice President of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Teachers, as well as the Jewish Teachers Association, was very involved with the Annual Queens Purim Parades.  She was on the Advisory Board of the Queens College Black-Jewish People-to-People Project, served on the Jewish Heritage Week Advisory Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council and was a member of the Steering Committee of the Queens Chapter of the Jewish Teacher’s Community Chest. She served on Community Board 9, the Advisory Board of Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives at Queensborough Community College,  was vice president for the Queens Jewish Historical Society, was a member of the board of the Ladies Auxiliary for Congregation Adath Yeshurun of Kew Gardens and served as executive vice president, vice president, treasurer and president of the Queens Jewish Community Council.

Cecelia Owens Cox (1951–2019) was one of the original 41 women sworn into the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) on September 22, 1982. The integration of women into the FDNY was a hard-fought battle, but Cecelia and her cohort were well-prepared for the challenge. She broke significant barriers for women, particularly Black women, throughout her career. Notably, she was the first woman assigned to a ladder company (Ladder 9) and the first woman to serve as a ladder company chauffeur. Throughout her tenure, she was a dedicated advocate and an active member of both the United Women Firefighters and the Vulcan Society. In these roles, Cox drove meaningful change as a mentor and activist, inspiring countless women to enter the firefighting profession. On a personal note, Cecelia married fellow firefighter Andre Cox in 1990. She eventually retired from the FDNY in 2005. To honor her legacy, the intersection of Sutter Avenue and the Van Wyck Expressway in Jamaica, Queens—located near her longtime home—was co-named in her memory.

Saviour “Sammy” Borg volunteered around his community. He was very involved in Police Precinct 114 Council meetings and Block Watcher meetings. He volunteered to clean and close Sean’s Place, a park on 38th Street every evening.

William E. Gardner, Sr. (1907-1974) served a series of churches in his native Florida before becoming pastor of the First Baptist Church, East Elmhurst, in 1950. During his pastorate First Baptist grew from less than 200 to over 2,200 members. A beautiful new church costing more than half a million dollars was built.

Neville Anthony Facey dedicated his life to helping others and serving his community. He exemplified that commitment to stewardship as Director of the Robert Couche Senior Center in Jamaica, Queens. Under his leadership, he made sure hundreds of low-income, elderly residents were provided lunch daily, even during the start of the coronavirus pandemic. For many, it was their only hot meal of the day. He believed strongly in civic involvement, so he maintained an open-door policy for local and state politicians to come to the center and speak to its members. He also assembled groups to meet with the Queens Borough President's office on a regular basis regarding matters impacting seniors. Due to physical and economical constraints, many older residents lacked the ability to venture to places on their own, so they always looked forward to the popular bus trips he helped organize. That included a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, trips to various entertainment resorts, attending theatrical events and dining at ethnically diverse restaurants. He presided over the center's highly anticipated annual dinner dance which honored volunteers, business owners, church leaders and artists in the Queens community. He also encouraged the support of beloved local businesses and destinations, including the Black Spectrum Theatre, Roy Wilkins Park and Antun's Restaurant. His goal was to help enrich the lives of older residents by maintaining instructional programs that focused on nutrition, exercise, computer training and social activities. He invited local police and firefighters to come educate the public about safety concerns. Before becoming Director, he served for many years as Treasurer on the Center's Board of Directors. Previously, he helped hundreds of Queens’ residents get access to much-needed home healthcare assistance while working as assistant director of administration for Social Concern Community Development's office in Laurelton. He received several awards for his years of service in the community, including being honored by the Guy R. Brewer United Democratic Club. He volunteered at the local polls during every election. He also helped countless people, especially immigrants, find jobs and apply to college.

Ralph Goldstein (1921-1986) was Assemblyman for the 30th District from 1977 until his death on May 21, 1986, at the age of 64. The Forest Hills Assemblyman chaired the Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee. Notably, among the bills he sponsored was the 1984 "lemon law," designed to protect the rights of used-car buyers. Mr. Goldstein was born in New York City, graduated from De Witt Clinton High School, and served in the US Army Air Corps during World War II. He earned a law degree from New York University Law School after graduating from City College. Before establishing his law practice in the 1950s, he taught civics and economics in New York City high schools.

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William A. Clarke (1896-1975) was the first principal of John Adams High School in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens. A resident of Richmond Hill, he was active in Catholic Charities and the American Irish Historical Society.

Walter Kaner (1920-2005) was a journalist, radio personality, armed services veteran, and philanthropist. During World War II, Kaner gained fame as "Tokyo Mose," broadcasting on U.S. Army Radio to counter Tokyo Rose's propaganda. His humorous rejoinders and catchy jingles endeared him to both U.S. troops and Japanese civilians. Post-war, Kaner continued his career in journalism, writing columns for the Long Island Press, Daily News, and Queens Gazette. His work often focused on social issues and philanthropy. He also made television appearances, including as a stand-in for Ed Sullivan. Kaner was known for his philanthropy and supported many children's organizations. In 1950, he founded the Walter Kaner Children's Foundation to support disadvantaged and disabled children in the New York metropolitan area. The foundation's annual holiday party, attended by thousands of children, became a beloved tradition. Kaner's dedication to improving the lives of young people earned him widespread admiration and respect. In 2006, the intersection of Amboy Lane and Springfield Boulevard was renamed “Walter Kaner Street.”

Jeffrey Ray Calero (d. 2007) had a distinguished career in the Special Forces Command of the United States Army. He was killed while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq.

George Meany (1894-1980) became President of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1952. He helped bring about the merger of the AFL and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1955, after 20 years of bitter rivalry.

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Oswald Grannum, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, W.I. migrated to the United States in 1960 to begin a new life. As a young professional cyclist, he earned many accolades over the years, and used his considerable organizing talent to form the New York Bicycle Racing Association (NYBRA) in Brooklyn. The club’s mission was to develop an anti-poverty program that would inspire self-esteem, encourage discipline, and promote academic and athletic excellence for urban youth to forge a better future for themselves. Through contributions from the Rockefeller Foundation, he was able to obtain the first bikes for the club. The Association membership grew to 1500 and the organization thrived, offering young people an alternative to being on the City’s streets through their programs, cycling competitions, after-school tutorials and summer youth employment opportunities. He moved to Rosedale, Queens in 1987, and immediately assessed the needs of his neighborhood. He was the first President of the 148th Drive and Community Block Association. Under his leadership, the Association moved quickly to create an agenda of action and community participation, including security patrol, an annual cleanup day, and park beautification. He was a visionary in his community. His leadership is dedicated to providing a context for the empowerment of his community.

H. Jacob (Jack) Breininger (1894-1979) moved to Lyman Street in 1927 and was a notable civic leader. He organized the Creedmore Civic Association and served as its president from 1936 until 1963. Active in several civic associations, he was president of the Kiwanis Club of Bellerose-Queens Village and a member of the American Legion, for 59 years.

Admiral Edward Vernon (1684-1757) was a storied naval commander whose name graces many streets and locations in the United States. Vernon joined the English Navy in 1700, and rose steadily in rank. He was appointed a member of Parliament in 1722, and staunchly opposed the government of Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), the head of the Whig party who is regarded as Great Britain's first prime minister. Meanwhile, tensions were building between England and Spain, whose commercial rivalry was becoming more than either power could bear. Vernon encouraged a confrontation with Spain, and in 1739, Walpole gave way under pressure from the House of Commons and finally declared war on Spain. Vernon's 1739 capture of Portobello, a town in central Panama on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, won him great popularity. In 1741, he led a joint expedition with the incompetent General Wentworth against the Cartegena and Santiago de Cuba. The expedition failed, and Vernon was recalled. The war ended later that year. Vernon died in 1757. Admiral Vernon is remembered by the British as "Old Grog," an affectionate nickname he earned from the grogram cloak he wore in foul weather. Eventually, the name was given to the drink that he had served to his sailors to curb their drunkenness-rum diluted with water. George Washington's (1732-1799) half-brother Lawrence is responsible for bringing Vernon's name to America. Lawrence had served under the admiral in a campaign against the West Indies, and in 1743, built a mansion and town in Fairfax County, Virginia. He called them both Mount Vernon.

Frank Koestner (b. 1953) worked at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center. He was killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Koestner was a stock trader for Cantor Fitzgerald, who loved jogging, skiing, hiking, biking, and whitewater rafting. He was the loving father to a 5-year-old daughter, and he also left behind a fiancé he was planning to marry on Oct. 28, 2001. "He was articulate and educated and ethical," said Dominick Schook, his friend for 31 years.

Marine Corporal Ramon (1984-2006) grew up in an apartment on 45th Avenue and Kissena Boulevard, having immigrated to the United States from Colombia at the age of 4. He attended local schools and graduated from John Bowne High School. He enlisted in the Marines right after high school. It was during his second tour of duty that the 22-year-old Ramon was killed in action in Iraq on July 20, 2006. He was two months away from coming home.

Clare Droesch (1982 – 2018), was a lifelong Rockaway resident and legendary basketball player and coach who passed away from breast cancer in 2018. The Christ the King women’s basketball assistant coach and former Boston College star was just 36 years old. Even after her diagnosis, she continued to coach basketball at Scholars’ Academy and Christ the King High School as she underwent treatment. During her time at Christ the King in the late 1990s, Droesch was arguably the best high school player in the state, as she helped lead the Royals to 106 wins. Christ the King also won three state federation championships in her time at the Middle Village school, which ended with an All-American selection in 2001. Droesch then went on to star at Boston College, where she helped lead the Golden Eagles to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including two trips to the Sweet Sixteen. She was an inspiration to countless young girls and was a beloved figure in the whole community.

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Frank Frontera (1858–1952) served in the Volunteer Fire Department in Maspeth until the age of 91.

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Rev. Carl L. Baldwin was founder of the Godian Church and Outreach Center, and was active in combating hunger and drug addiction in Southeast Queens. Helen V. Baldwin was the Director of Community Board 1 from 1968-1986 and worked alongside her husband in charitable and civic activities.

Clara Louise Little Belle devoted twenty-five years to serving in-patient and out-patient clients and their families at Creedmore Psychiatric Center before becoming an entrepreneur and civic advocate. Ms. Belle opened her first fashion store of family apparel and accessories in Jamaica Queens and a year later opened a second one in Troy, North Carolina. As a businesswoman, she was very civic minded and founded the LPW567 Block Association and later served as the 105th Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard Neighborhood Block Association President for two and a half decades, organizing hundreds of block parties, long distance shopping and casino bus trips and holiday social events for the community. She also organized snow shoveling and spring beautification projects between the youth and the elderly. She also was a committed volunteer at PS50Q and at the community health and recreation center. Additionally, she served as an Auxiliary Officer for the 103rd NYPD Precinct and community liaison with the Queens County Civil Court Family Advocate Division. She received many awards and accolades for her social justice work.

Isaac Hull (1773-1843) was an American naval officer best known for his command of the frigate Constitution during the War of 1812. Born in Shelton, Connecticut, Isaac Hull went to sea at an early age, serving as a cabin boy in 1787, and later in 1792 a master of a merchantman vessel. He was captured twice by French privateers while sailing the West Indies between 1796 and 1797 and, returning home in March of 1798, was commissioned a Fourth Lieutenant of the United States Naval frigate U.S.S. Constitution. Hull fought in the United States undeclared war with France (1798-1800) and the Tripolitan War (1801-1805) against the North African-based Barbary pirates. As the Constitution’s captain, Hull escorted several diplomatic and financial missions to Holland and France, before being recalled to port in preparation for America’s second war with the British Empire in nearly 30 years, the War of 1812. With the outbreak of hostilities, Captain Isaac Hull and the Constitution were put to sea once more. Encountering a superior British force near Egg Harbor, New Jersey in July 1812, Hull and his crew lead the enemy on a sixty-six hour long sea chase before successfully pulling away from their pursuers. On August 19, 1812, Captain Hull ordered his crew to engage the British frigate Guerriere in the Mid-Atlantic. Out maneuvering their British counter-part, the Constitution’s 55 guns brought down the enemy’s mizzenmast with its first volley and, over the next half hour, proceeded to pummel the stricken vessel into submission and irrevocably destroyed Britain’s mythic naval superiority. Shortly thereafter, Hull assumed command of New York’s harbor defenses. In 1823, Hull was promoted to the rank of commodore, and subsequently commanded the Pacific Squadron, the Washington Navy Yard, and the Mediterranean Squadron. Dying in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 13, 1843, his last words were reported to have been, “I strike my flag.”

Jack Zwerenz (d. 2019) was a founding member of the Glendale Civilian Observation Patrol. For his successful efforts to stop the MTA's Montauk option, which would have sent high-speed electrified trains at grade level through backyards and dangerous crossings, he received the Glendale Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year Award in 1985. He was also active in trying to get the USPS to establish a new zip code for Glendale. The Glendale Property Owners Association honored him with a 25-year Service Award. He was 86 when he passed away.

Josephine Caminiti, nee Verderosa, was born in Corona, Queens on July 16, 1931, to Michael and Nancy Verderosa. Josephine Caminiti lived her entire life in Corona Heights, attending Public School 14 and later graduating from Newton High School. Her first marriage left her widowed while still in her thirties and she became a single parent to her three daughters. In 1978 she married Anthony Caminiti and this union lasted until her death. Josephine Caminiti truly loved Corona Heights and was a strong community activist. She was a member of the Northside Democratic Club for forty years, serving a term as the club’s President, and for the last six years of her life served as Democratic District Leader in the 34th Assembly District. Josephine Caminiti was also a member of Community Planning Board No. 4 for seventeen years. She served on the Advisory Committee of the Donald Savio Adult Home in Corona, was an active member of the Corona Taxpayers Civic Association, a Board Member of the Corona Community Development Corp., and participated in the after school programs at P.S. 14, P.S. 19, I.S. 61, and St. Leo’s Parochial School where she founded a library. In addition, Josephine Caminiti was a member of the Executive Board of the PTA at P.S. 19, participated in the Queens Borough Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and worked as a School Aide for the Board of Education for twenty-six years. Josephine Caminiti, much loved by her Corona Heights community, died on September 23, 1994. She was survived by her husband Anthony, three daughters, Virginia, Nancy and Rita, and six grandchildren. Because of her many years of devoted service to her community, and its children, it is fitting that the existing playground in her beloved Corona Heights neighborhood, bounded by 102nd Street, Corona Avenue and Alstyne Avenue, be renamed in her honor. This biographical information was provided by Council Member Helen M. Marshall and Queens Community Board No. 4.

Thomas White Jr. (1939-2010) was a long-time member of the New York City Council representing the 28th District in Queens. He was chairman of the Economic Development Committee and co-founder and executive director of J-CAP, one of the largest substance abuse treatment programs in the state. Economic development and substance abuse were two of his primary issues. However, he also pushed for job-training programs and initiatives that helped the poor and protected victims of violence. Mr. White also worked on issues such as teen pregnancy prevention and helped to create primary care programs for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Reverend Gene McGhee (1946-2007) was both a civic and religious leader in the Jamaica community. He was pastor of The Bethlehem Church of God in Christ for more than 30 years, and led numerous charitable endeavors.

Captain George H. Tilly (1863-1899) was the son of a prominent Jamaica, NY family who was killed while fighting in the American subjugation of the Philippines in 1899. Tilly was assigned to the Army Signal Corp, and stationed at Lloilo, Philippines. By provision of the Treaty of Paris in 1899, the United States annexed the Philippine Islands, a former Spanish colony, as a prize for its victory over Spain in the Spanish - American War (1898). Having removed Spanish rule, the United States sought to impose its own will upon the Philippines, but met resistance from Filipino rebels seeking independence. The Tilly family once owned the land on which this park sits. At the turn of the last century, the bulk of the wooded land and pond (The Goose Pond) which comprise Captain George H. Tilly Park was owned by the Highland Park Society, a group of Jamaica landowners who raised ducks and geese at the site. In 1908, the landowners deeded the property to New York City for one dollar, insisting only that it always be used as a park. At first, the park, situated at 165th Street between Highland and 85th Avenue, in Jamaica Hills, was called Highland Park. By 1912, to avoid confusion with Highland Park in Cypress Hills, it was renamed Upland Park. In 1935, city officials renamed the property Captain George Tilly Park in his memory. In 1941, a monument dedicated to the heroes of the Spanish-American War was erected in the park by the Captain George H. Tilly Camp No. 66 of Jamaica.

William Hallett (1616-1706) was born in Dorsetshire, England. He emigrated to New England to the colonial settlement in Greenwich, Connecticut, and then moved to Hellgate, Long Island, where Astoria and the East River meet, before there was a revolt by native peoples there. In the surrounding area, the Canarsie, Wappinger, Munsee Lenape, and Schaghticoke tribes were all indigenous to the region. Hallett moved to Flushing where he was appointed Sheriff briefly before Governor Stuyveseant imprisoned him for entertaining a reverend with whom he did not agree. After this debacle, Hallett supported Connecticut's claims to the area and became a justice of peace for Flushing. He then moved back to Hellgate where he spent the rest of his life.

George S. Kaufman (1928-2018), was a real estate magnate from an established New York City real estate family. In 1980, leading a group of investors, he transformed the old Astoria Studio in Astoria, Queens, to major film and television production studio. The original studio opened in 1920 by Adolph Zukor. It became the home for Paramount Pictures, producing over 120 silent and sound films during the years between the two world wars. It eventually fell into disuse. The new studio produced some of the most famous TV shows and movies. The TV shows include: “The Cosby Show,” “Sesame Street,” “Orange Is the New Black” and “Nurse Jackie”. The movies include: “Goodfellas,” “Angels in America,” “The Wiz” and the 2009 remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123.” The investment in the studio led to major commercial and residential growth in the surrounding neighborhoods in northwest Queens. Along with Tony Bennett, an Astoria native and his wife, Susan Benedetto, a public-school teacher, he established the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a public high school, in the neighborhood. He was also the first president of a business improvement district in the Garment District in Manhattan, now known as the Garment District Alliance.

Edith K. Bergtraum (d. 1994) was an elementary school teacher in Queens for 25 years. She served on Community School Board District 25 in Flushing for 19 years, and on the New York City Commission on the Status of Women from 1973 until her death in 1994.

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Joseph Austin (1904-1998) was a longtime youth league coach and active member of the Jamaica, Queens community. Austin worked after school at the Boyce MotoMeter Company in Long Island City to support his family. He played on the company baseball team and would later play semi-professional baseball on various teams. After losing his job during the Great Depression, Austin coached co-ed youth sports teams in baseball, basketball, and football. He continued coaching after he found a job at the Piels Brewery in Brooklyn once the 21st Amendment ended prohibition in 1933. One of Austin’s most famous players was Governor Mario M. Cuomo (1932-2015), a fellow dedicated public servant and accomplished baseball player.

Harry M. Douglas (1919 – 1999) sometimes spelled as Douglass, was the lead singer of The Deep River Boys, an American gospel music group active from the mid-1930s and into the 1980s. Douglas lived on Sidway Place in Locust Manor/St. Albans Queens and in his later years was dedicated to community service in his Southeast Queens neighborhood. With The Deep River Boys, Harry Douglas delighted audiences around the world for more than 30 years, and was featured on nine albums and many singles released by the group. The Deep River Boys performed twice at the White House and gave a Command Performance for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. In 2019, their 1941 single "They Look Like Men of War" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Douglas was elected Vice-President of the Merrick Boulevard Local Development Corporation at its formation in 1980 and served in that capacity until his death. He was also instrumental in organizing the Springfield Gardens Business Merchants Association. He worked closely with the men and women of the 113th Police Precinct on a regular basis to address problems that confronted the community. Due to his leadership, grants for neighborhood improvements were provided by Federal, State and City agencies. As the architect of Project Lamb, he was responsible for the annual installation of holiday lights on the Merrick Boulevard shopping strip. Through his persistence under the banner of the Merrick Boulevard Local Development Corporation, Harry Douglas won approval for the Locust Manor Civilian Patrol and for the two neighborhood redevelopment contracts awarded to provide security and safety equipment for 46 merchants from Archer Avenue to Springfield Boulevard.

Wendell Solomon Gabriel O’Brien (1966-2008) was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, where he spent his formative years. In 1999, he relocated his family to Rosedale, Queens. there he met Oswald Grannum, president of the 148th Drive & Community Block Association, Inc. and was encouraged to join the organization. His wife became the Secretary, and he was the representative at the 105th precinct meetings. In 2001, he joined the New York City Fire Department where he served as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), a union delegate, and a counselor. During his career, he received numerous commendations for bravery from the New York City Fire Department, the office of the mayor and many civic organizations. He was recognized by the New York Post in 2003 for saving the life of a neighbor’s child, in addition to preventing a suicidal woman from throwing herself into the East River in 2005. After his death, the New York City Fire Department honored him at a Memorial Celebration co-hosted by the New York Liberty Women’s Basketball team at Madison Square Garden on Friday, June 26, 2009. There he received a Proclamation from then-Assembly member Michele Titus.

Robert C. Lohnes (1938-2014) served in the United States Navy as a Seaman First Class and was awarded the National Defense Medal. He was a New York City Police Officer from 1962 to 1996, achieving the rank of Second Grade Detective. He twice received awards for Excellent Police Duty. Lohnes served on the Whitestone Community Volunteer Ambulance from 1976 to 1986. From 1978 to 2014, he was a member and scoutmaster of the Whitestone Troop 235 of the Boy Scouts of America. He was also a volunteer in the 9/11 Rescue, Recovery, and Identification effort.

Ritawantee "Auntie Rita" Persaud (d. 2020) was a singer, mentor and active member of the South Ozone Park and Richmond Hill Indo-Caribbean community. She was well known in the Hindu community in New York and Guyana for singing devotional music at various mandirs in New York and for her work teaching her art form to young people. Born in Guyana, Persaud moved to New York City in 1999 and quickly found a home amongst the West Indian Hindu community. Aside from her work as an accountant, Persaud spent much of her time on service projects to improve her community. Tragically, Persaud’s life was cut short at age 54, on Christmas Eve 2020, when the Uber she was riding in was struck in a hit-and-run accident in Ozone Park. City Council Member Joann Ariola said of Persaud: “Whether it was through her work at the Shanti Bhavan Mandir, or through her day-to-day interactions with her friends and neighbors, Rita’s life was a bright light for all who encountered her."

Rabbi Avraham Schechter ( 1936 - 2006)  was born in East New York, Brooklyn and moved to Kew Gardens Hills in 1961. He became a member of Community Board 8, where he served for 26 years, and was chairman of the zoning committee. He was the founder and chairman of the Jewish Action Committee and United Yeshiva, and was a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, the Queens General Assembly and the JFK Democratic Club. He also served as a liaison to the 107th Police Precinct and worked on a community patrol, and was a member of the board of directors of the Queens Valley Homeowners Association. He was also president of the Clergy Council of Queens and editor of the Voice of Mid-Queens newspaper. Schechter also informally served his neighbors as a marriage counselor, a financial advisor, a parenting mentor and a listening ear for anyone who needed the advice of an elder.

Morris R. Lee (1931 – 2008) was a longtime civic leader in southeast Queens, best known as the executive director of the Council for Airport Opportunity, where he secured thousands of jobs for youth and minorities in the borough. Lee was born and raised in Tuscaloosa and served in the United States Air Force for 10 years. He moved his family to New York and settled in Cambria Heights, Queens, in 1968. He earned a B.A. and Master’s Degree in economics from Queens College and served on the board of the Health Systems Agency of New York City. In addition to the work he did at the Council for Airport Opportunity, he was also very active in many community activities and was a founding member of the Cambria Heights Kiwanis Club, served as treasurer of the Queens County Overall Economic Development Corporation and was vice president of Community Planning Board, Community Board 13 in Queens.

The murder of Emmett Till inspired Sister Nzingha Abena (1939-2019) to devote her life to working for Justice, Peace and Equality for all. She worked in poverty programs set up in 1968 to help secure jobs for inner city youth and provide day care centers. She volunteered in the Public Schools from 1962-1973. She eventually found her calling as an educator. She attended Fordham University on full scholarship, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Education/Social Science and a Master’s in Education. She taught at P.S. 113K, P.S. 21K and Brooklyn College High School Academy. After retiring from the NYC Dept. of Education, she continued her work in the community. She was the Co-Chair of the Million Man/Woman March Coordinating Council of Queens, Inc. from 1995-2008. She was Vice President and Board member for the Varied Internship Program for more than 20 years. In that capacity she helped more than 1000 youth from southeast Queens obtain meaningful after school paid internships. Sister Nzingha was a key organizers of the Annual Black College Tour, For five years she annually travelled with hundreds of Middle and High School students to more than eleven historically Black Colleges. She also had a leadership role in organizing Youth Days, Fathers and their Families Marches and community political, education and economic forums for the residents of Southeast Queens. At the time of her death, she was also doing volunteer teaching in the after school program at P.S.156.

Amanda Leah Clarke (1939 – 2017) was a community activist who lived in Queens. She had a deep passion for civic, community and political engagement and was actively engaged in several community groups such as the Federated Blocks of Laurelton, where she served as a block watcher during the crime spikes of the 1970’s and 80’s, and the Laurelton Garden Club. After the murder of her son Michael in 2002, she teamed up with friends and community members to form the Michael Arthur Clarke Foundation which provides scholarships to deserving students in southeast Queens. In addition to her community activism, she was elected to be the Democratic Party District Leader and in 2001, and ran for the New York City Council in the 31st District of Queens. Although she did not win, she remained actively involved in numerous campaigns as a volunteer, donor, and fundraiser. This corner also has been named for her son Michael A. Clarke.

Lieutenant Andrew Slover Litchhult (1895 – 1936), was a WWI veteran who fought in France and was discharged honorably in 1919; he was born and lived in Southeast Queens. Litchhult died October 8, 1936, from complications of the encephalitis he contracted while fighting overseas during the well-documented influenza outbreak in Europe.

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Theodore Foulk (1848-1924) was a prominent nurseryman who established a successful business in Flushing. In 1895, he acquired and, for the next 29 years, ran Bloodgood Nurseries on Broadway in Flushing, along with other properties in Mineola, New York, and New Jersey. Now located in Horsham, Pennsylvania, Bloodgood Nurseries was first established in 1798 by Joseph Bloodgood and, still in business, it is considered the oldest continuously operating nursery and landscape company in the United States. On his death, Foulk left the City of New York $10,000 in his will, designating half of his gift for the improvement of Kissena Park in Fresh Meadows and the other half for the improvement or extension of the playgrounds at Flushing. Foulk was born in Andrews Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Aaron Foulk and Margaretta J. (McIntyre) Foulk, the first of their four children. In 1882, he married Mabel Pyle Way, a Quaker who was originally from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The couple had three children: Helen, Donald, and William. In 1894, Foulk moved with his family from Red Bank, New Jersey, to Flushing, where he established his nursery business and made his career. By 1895, he had acquired Bloodgood Nurseries, which was located on the south side of Northern Boulevard between 134th and 150th Streets. His son, William, later joined him in the business. Foulk also partnered with William Flemer Sr. of F\&F Nurseries in Springfield, New Jersey, to form the American Nursery Company—an effort to expand operations and increase efficiency—and he ran his nurseries up until his death. In his will, Foulk made additional gifts to a variety of organizations and charities, including Flushing Hospital and Associated Charities of Flushing. On September 19, 1924, Foulk died at his home in Flushing, and Mabel followed in 1942. The couple are buried in Oxford Cemetery in Oxford, Pennsylvania. Foulk’s contributions to local parks and institutions left a lasting legacy in Flushing, reflecting a deep connection to the community. In 1935, an NYC Department of Parks press release announced the opening of the new Bowne Playground, adding that some of the funds used in its construction were obtained through Foulk’s bequest, as he was “particularly interested in playground development.” In 1936, the City installed a plaque in Bowne Park in Flushing to commemorate Foulk’s gift.

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Chief George R. Vierno (1940-1990) was a 28-year veteran of the NYC Department of Corrections. In 1984, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Operations. He also served as Acting Correction Commissioner and Chief of Department.

Leroy Jackson was a community activist and Co-President of the 228th Street Block Association. He was a caretaker and landscaper of the five-block-long center isles along 228th Street from 134th Avenue to 137th Avenue in Laurelton. He used his own personal funds to purchase “Please Curb Your Dog” signs for the center isles, and was active in keeping the street clean and safe. A certified Tai Chi instructor, he organized a community health and exercise program at the Robert Couche Senior Center. He also coached for the Rochdale Little League for 10 years, the longest period in the league's history, and worked with the Community Computers Program, where he set up computers and taught basic computer skills for those needed. Jackson received several awards for his service to the Laurelton and Jamaica communities, including the NYPD Model Block Award for Community Service from then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Sergei Dovlatov (1941-1990) grew up in Leningrad and later was assigned to a military unit guarding Siberian state prison camps. In the late 1960's, he became a journalist. He immigrated to the United States in 1979 after being harassed by Soviet authorities. He lived in Forest Hills, Queens. He published several books, including “The Invisible Book,” “The Compromise,” “Ours” and “The Suitcase.” He also worked for Radio Liberty as a freelance script writer. Since glasnost, his novels have been published in Russia and become extremely popular. The New Yorker published several of his short stories. From 1980 to 1982, he edited The New American, a weekly magazine.

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Qadri James Skipper, who died in 2012 at the age of 17, was a young activist who fought for equal access to education for students with pulmonary hypertension and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia after the New York City Department of Education resisted granting him a specialized medical transport to school. He attended Information Technology High School in Long Island City, which posthumously awarded him a diploma and established a scholarship in his memory.

Gloria Brochin Warshofsky (1928-2003), an interior decorator, was also a staunch community activist. She was President of the Bayswater Civic Association and a member of Queens Community Board 14 for many years.

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James A. Sherry (1889 - 1955) was the Chief Park Administrator under former Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1889-1981).

Rodney Johnson (1960-2020) was a self-taught barber who worked in his neighborhood for 20 years. Rodney’s aspiration led him to eventually open his own shop, "The Shop," on Astoria Boulevard. Rodney’s shop became a safe haven for young men he mentored and for up and coming barbers. Rodney sold his shop eventually, but he continued to cut hair for clients privately. He also made home visits to senior citizens for haircuts. His clients even followed him to his home church, where he cut hair at the Antioch Baptist Church Barbershop. Rodney was known for cutting generations of hair in the community - sons, fathers, and grandfathers all sat in Rodney’s chair. He was honored by the Corona/East Elmhurst Civic Association with the Community Service Award by the New York City Council and a citation for Faithful Service Award. He was also passionate about preserving Family Day, a community event that brings people together for games, food, and fellowship. He served on both the Family Day Committee and the Elmcor Youth & Adult Activities, Inc. Board.

Robert Wilson (1933-2003) served in the United States Navy, including four years in the Korean War. He was an active member of Community Board 1, President of the Dutch Kills Civic Association, and an administrative supporter of the LIC leg of the New York City Marathon every year. In 2003, he was posthumously awarded the Diocese of Brooklyn Sesquicentennial Commemorative Medal.

Father Matthew J. Crosson (1908-1968) was born in Greenwich Village, N.Y. He was ordained in 1934 and served as an Army chaplain in the South Pacific in World War II. In his youth he played baseball and basketball with independent and semi-pro teams on Long Island, and was later known as "The Baseball Priest" because of his long-standing association with youth athletic leagues. He held several pastorates throughout the New York City area. His final assignment was at St. Patrick's Church, Highland Mills, N.Y., from 1964 until his death in 1968.

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Eugene Gray (1927 - 1973), was a community activist who supported the construction of Broad Channel's first adventure playground before his death. Gray was born on March 14, 1927, in Park Slope, Brooklyn and later moved to Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan; after attending college, he married Lorraine Baker, with whom he had three children. Gray moved to Broad Channel and became involved in various neighborhood youth programs, including the Broad Channel Athletic Club, an organization for which he served as president. He was a community football coach for more than twenty years, helped to shape and maintain the Broad Channel football league, and assisted in the creation of the local Teen Club, which provided safe recreational activities for the area’s youth. Gray also championed the construction of this playground in Broad Channel, and 14 years after his death in recognition of his commitment to the playground and his community service, the site was dedicated to him.

Brian Piccolo (1943–1970) was the former fullback and running back for the National Football League's Chicago Bears, until he died at the age of twenty-six of embryonal cell carcinoma. Piccolo was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts to Joseph and Irene Piccolo, and was the youngest of three brothers. His family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida when he was three years old. He attended Central Catholic High School and was the star running back. He attended Wake Forest University on a football scholarship. In his senior year, he set nine school records and was named Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year. He joined the Bears in 1965 as a free agent and had his most productive season in 1968. During that season he ran for a career-high 450 yards, scored two touchdowns on 123 attempts and had twenty-eight receptions for 291 yards. His accomplishments came to light mainly in the last six games of the season after friend and teammate Gale Sayers sustained a season-ending knee injury in a game against the San Francisco 49ers. Sayers and Piccolo were both rookies in the Bear’s 1965 team. The two were the first interracial roommates in the NFL, which came during a time of racial strife across the nation. Piccolo played his last football game on November 16, 1969. His career ended after taking himself out of the game due to difficulty breathing. This shortness of breath was a symptom of embryonal cell carcinoma. He had surgery shortly after but the cancer returned in February of the following year. After months of chemotherapy, he underwent a mastectomy and had lymph nodes removed from his chest. In April of that year, Piccolo had his left lung removed but the cancer had already spread to other parts of his body. Piccolo died June 16, 1970 and is buried at St. Mary Catholic Cemetery in Evergreen Park. He was survived by his wife Joy and his three daughters. Piccolo’s life inspired the made for television film “Brian’s Song,” which was loosely based off of Sayers’ autobiography and tells the story of their friendship. After Piccolo’s death The Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund was created and due to their research in the 70s and 80s, Piccolo's disease, which was once a death sentence, now has a 95% survival rate. Today the Fund focuses on breast cancer research at Rush Medical Center in Chicago and provides support to the Clearbrook Center for the developmentally disabled in Arlington Heights. Overall, over $13 million has been raised in Piccolo’s name for cancer research. Brian Piccolo was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame in 1970 following his death. In 1972, Brian Piccolo Middle School opened in Far Rockaway, Queens. The students at the school decided on the name after watching the film “Brian’s Song.”

Dr. Daniel Malakov (1974-2007) was a popular local orthodontist whose life was cut short following a contentious custody battle with his wife. Malakov was born in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan on January 13, 1974, though by the time he was nine months old, the family had moved to Tashkent. He moved to the United States in 1991, attending York College and then New York University's School of Dentistry. He finally pursued the orthodontic specialty program at Columbia University, garnering him the honor of being the first Bukharian orthodontist trained at an Ivy League institution in the United States. Malakov saw an opportunity to serve his local Bukharian Jewish community, and the Queens community at large, and he opened his practice in Forest Hills. He was known to provide pro bono treatment to the children of first responders and others who weren't able afford orthodontic care, and he inspired his late sister's children to follow his path toward dentistry and orthodontics. During this time, Malakov married Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova, a specialist in internal medicine at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island, and they had a daughter, Michelle. The couple's relationship faltered early on, particularly over disagreements on how to raise Michelle. They separated and reunited, then separated again, at which point the contentious custody dispute began. On October 28, 2007, Malakov brought then-4-year-old Michelle to be picked up by Borukhova at Annadale Playground. He had been granted temporary custody of Michelle by a judge about a week earlier. After Michelle ran to her mother, Malakov was shot and killed by a gunman who immediately fled. Borukhova was accused of hiring her distant relative, Mikhail Mallayev, to murder Malakov. Both Borukhova and Mallayev were arrested, tried, and convicted for the killing, and each was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Community Board 6 voted to rename this intersection next to Annadale Playground for Malakov in 2010. City Councilmember Lynn Schulman introduced the renaming in 2024.

Krystyna Naprawa (1960-2023) served for 13 years as a crossing guard before she died in the line of duty while directing traffic near PS 60. Born in Poland on September 28, 1960, Naprawa moved to New York City in the 1980s. She made a new home in Howard Beach. She loved to garden, cook, and bake. She became a crossing guard in 2010, where she enjoyed greeting school children and locals each day. On the morning of October 20, 2023, Naprawa was posted at her regular location, the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue. At about 8 a.m., after helping a group of pedestrians cross the street, she was in the crosswalk when she was struck and killed by the driver of a dump truck who was making a right turn. Naprawa was 63 years old. The driver stayed at the scene and was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian. Naprawa had previously been struck by a driver while on the job, but she went back to work the same day. At the time of her passing, she still lived in Howard Beach, along with her daughter and son-in-law. Her son, Tomasz Naprawa, has served as a Port Authority Police Officer for more than 15 years. Following the crash, the city instituted several new safety measures meant to prevent similar deaths, including giving crossing guards new reflective vests, whistles, and 18-inch “stop” signs with six-foot telescopic, detachable poles for use at larger intersections and along truck routes. Additionally, the Department of Transportation installed a right turn signal at the intersection where Naprawa was killed. The NYPD also added another crossing guard to the post. The state legislature also passed legislation in her honor to ensure all crossing guards are enrolled in the Board of Education Retirement System pension plan. In February 2024, Naprawa was posthumously awarded a promotion and given a ceremony honoring her years of service. Naprawa lived in the same neighborhood as Council Member Joann Ariola, who said she'd visit her district office on coffee breaks. Ariola proposed the street co-naming, located at the site of the crash. She hosted the unveiling ceremony on September 28, 2024—which would have been Naprawa's 64th birthday.

Roxina J. Clayton was a 20-year resident of Brooklyn and 40-year resident of Laurelton, Queens. She worked at the New York City Transit Authority for 25 years, rising from a Relief Token Booth Clerk to Train Dispatcher, before retiring in 1996. She was a staple of the community for her life-long volunteerism and service in care of the elderly, such as through her participation with Meals on Wheels and Rockaway Revue senior center performances. Despite relocating to Queens, she earned the moniker “The Lady That Sweeps” for regularly sweeping the sidewalk of the block in front of her family’s native Brooklyn home. She was also an active member of the Greater Allen Cathedral, performing with its Cathedral Choir during regular congregational services and Celebration of Life Choir during funeral services. She served as president of the South Carolina Club where she organized local charity events for the senior congregation members at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York and also was involved with Habitat for Humanity and the Fresh Air Fund. She received many awards for her work in the community including a Certificate of Appreciation from the United Negro College Fund and an award from the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York, among others. She died in a tragic vehicular accident caused by a robbery suspect attempting to elude police capture.

Pauline Rhodd-Cummings (1925-2002) was a 25-year resident of the Rockaways. She served in the New York State Assembly for 8 years, and was the past President of the Deerfield Area Association; Executive Board Member of Queens Community Board 14; Executive Board member of the Rockaway Development Corporation among other posts. She died on January 27, 2002 after a year-long battle with cancer.

Lorraine Elliot (d. 1980) was a devoted mother who worked as an NYPD Crossing Guard at the extremely busy intersection of Lefferts Boulevard and Rockaway Boulevard in South Ozone Park. While she was helping a group of school children to cross, a driver became blinded by the winter sun reflecting off the snow, and Ms. Elliott quickly and instinctively pushed the children into a soft snowbank near the curb and took the brunt force of the car which knocked her to the ground and caused a significant head injury. She was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where she went through several hours of surgery. She was in a coma for 28 days before succumbing to her injuries and passed away on February 5, 1980 - she was 45 years old and killed in the line of duty. As a single mother, her death left three children orphaned and wards of the state.

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Private Edward M. McKee (d. 1918) was a native of Queens who was killed in World War I. McKee grew up at 67 North Sixth Avenue in Whitestone, and joined the army when the United States entered the war. He served in Company I of the 326th Infantry regiment, and tragically died of wounds on October 15, 1918, just 27 days before Armistice and the end of the war. In addition to McKee Triangle, the American Legion Edward M. McKee Post No. 131 at 10-20 Clintonville Street in Whitestone is also named for him.

Margie Boyd (1924-2017) was the Co-Pastor and First Lady of the New Greater Bethel Ministries located in Queens, New York. She served as the head of the Bethel Christian School, the food pantries and the Women’s Department where she worked with over 2,300 young women daily. She was also a member of many civic organizations, worked closely with Community Boards and was the founder of the annual Give Back to the Community Day, where she would give the community clothing, food, music and other services.

Leroy H. Gwirtzman (1927-1992) was a World War II veteran, civic leader in the Rockaways and an active community member who contributed many years of dedicated service to his neighborhood.

Sharon Michele Rivers (1969-2003) was a young woman who epitomized the words New Yorker. Born in the Bronx, she was a product of the New York City School System graduating from one of its specialized schools, The High School of Fashion Industries. She held different positions in her short life, from Alexander’s Department Store to an Assistant Property Manager for Phipps Houses Association. Sharon’s last place of employment was at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank. Sharon also enjoyed museums, on and off Broadway plays and neighborhood street festivals and fairs. Caprice Antoinette Bush (1979-2003) was born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, and had an intense love for her family, friends, life and the Lord. She donated as much as she could to such charities as The Lighthouse and St. Jude Children’s Foundation. Caprice was very pro-active in her community and knew that one of her greatest weapons in the fight for change was her right to vote. She participated in voter registration drives with ACORN Housing. Caprice was also very interested in the Arts as well which led her to work in the fashion world designing her own dresses to someday release her own fashion line. On July 10, 2003, while crossing Queens Boulevard on their return from their lunch break, they were standing on a median when they were killed by a car that had been struck by another vehicle that had run a red light. Their deaths led to measures to improve pedestrian safety along Queens Boulevard.

Charles J. Adams Jr. (1932-2020) served in the United States Coast Guard from 1950 until 1953. In 1961, he joined the NYPD and was quickly promoted to detective investigating high profile cases. He became one of the first African-American bodyguards for New York City’s Mayors’ Robert Wagner and John Lindsay. After a 27-year career, he retired as a Lieutenant. He served as Deputy Commissioner of the Civilian Complaint Review Board and served as the Executive Director for the New York State Education Department, Office of Professional Discipline. Adams was actively involved in his community and faith. He served as president of the Holy Name Society at St. Pascal Baylon R.C. Church and was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Officers. He was also a lifetime member of Guardians. His commitment extended to mentoring students at PS 116 in Manhattan, membership in the Virginia Sheriff’s Institute Association, and affiliation with St. Olaf’s R.C. Church.

Anthony Mason (1966-2015) was a professional basketball player. During his 13-year career, he played for the New Jersey Nets, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Charlotte Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, and Miami Heat. Mason achieved several accolades: he earned the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1995 and was named to the All-NBA Third Team and NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 1997. Mason grew up in South Jamaica, Queens, and attended Springfield Gardens High School. In 2015, the school's gymnasium was dedicated to him and renamed "Mase Court" in his honor. Mason founded the charity "Family On Three Foundation," which educated youth on financial management and healthy life skills.

Harold Schneiderman (1926 - 1985), was a resident and community activist in Howard Beach where he lived the last 25 years of his life. Schneiderman was born in Buffalo and came to own over a dozen supermarkets. He was active in about 30 different charitable organizations, including the Cerebral Palsy Telethon, Samaritan Village, Daytop Village, Covenant House, was the president of two synagogues (Springfield Gardens and Rockwood Park) , and was known for his involvement with the local Little League. Most prominently he was the District Deputy Grand Chancellor of Order of Knights of Pythias, a national fraternal organization, where he served on the Board of the Pythian Summer Camp for City Youth, and was one of the founders of the New York State Women’s Chapter of the Pythian Order. He also served on President Kennedy's Council for Physical Fitness. After his death in 1985, the Cross Bay Utopia Lodge Knights of Pythias established the Harold Schneiderman Memorial Fund to continue his charitable work.

Patricia “Pat” Simon (d. 2024) was a trailblazer and visionary leader dedicated to the wellbeing of historically underserved communities in New York City. Simon received a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Urban, Community, and Regional Planning program. The street co-named in her honor is located in the Rockaways, where she made a lasting impact on the community through her advocacy in the area. Pat Simon served as Executive Director of the Ocean Bay Community Development Corporation (OBCDC) beginning in 2004. Pat had previously served as the Director of the Abyssinian Development Corporation's Community Vision Project in Harlem, a groundbreaking initiative funded by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and took this experience into her work with OBCDC. At OBCDC, Simon secured federal funding, established the Older Adult Center in 2022, and joined the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program at Ocean Bay (Bayside) Apartments. She moved the organization to a direct service model to better serve the Rockaways community, particularly NYCHA residents and seniors. This model provided programming and support to address housing and food insecurity, health care, and senior care. Pat Simon was dedicated to empowerment and improvement of living conditions for all people she worked with and served.

Rev. Freddie Brunswick (1927-2018) was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He was drafted into the United States Military and served until 1949. He moved to Harlem in 1951 and joined the Southern Baptist Church where he preached his trial sermon under the leadership of Rev. C. B. Wilson. He was ordained at the Mount Nebo Baptist Church and pursued further religious studies at Union Theological Seminary. Early in his ministry, he was called to pastor the Mt. Cellar Baptist Church in Harlem, where he met and married the former Shirley Edmonds. He was later called to pastor the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Jamaica, New York. In September 1964, Pastor Brunswick and others organized the Salem Missionary Baptist Church, where he served as the Pastor for over 42 years. Pastor Brunswick was active in public and denominational affairs and had the distinction of being the Senior Baptist Pastor in Queens. He maintained friendships with many Civil Rights Movement leaders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Rev. Dr. Wyatt T. Walker. Throughout his ministry, he participated in and led several marches, sit-ins, and other community actions. Notably, his efforts led to keeping the campus of York College in its current location; and the development and support of the Springfield Gardens Civic Association. Among his many offices and honors, he was the former President of the Sunday School and Baptist Training Union (BTU) Department, Chairman of the Trustee Board of the Eastern Baptist Association, and was the former President of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Queens, NY.

Freddie Dill, Sr. (d. 2001) was a business owner and active member of his South Jamaica community. Dill moved from Pittsburgh to Jamaica, Queens at age 17 in the late 1950s, where he started working at a gas station, and went on to start a landscaping business. In 1973 he opened his first “Pooor Freddie’s” business (with 3 o's), a tire and towing shop on Liberty Avenue. From then on, Freddie became a successful business owner, moving to 129th Avenue and Merrick Boulevard, where he ran a towing service, a tire center, a take-out and catering establishment and finally, an auto center, all under the Poor Freddie's name.  Dill was not only an entrepreneur, but also an active part of the southeast Queens community, serving as the chairman of the board of directors of the Jamaica YMCA, where he chaired the “Uniting for Youth” campaign. He was a member of the Masons, the Pride of Jamaica Lodge #217, 100 Black Men, and The United Black Men of Queens County, Inc. and is well known for sponsoring an annual July 4 cookout. 129th Avenue between Merrick Boulevard and 174th Street in St. Albans was named "Freddie Dill Sr. Avenue" in his honor in 2007, and was renamed “Poor Freddie’s Avenue,” in 2009, to better reflect how he was known in the community.

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Rep. Benjamin S. Rosenthal (D-NY) represented northeast Queens in the U.S. Congress from 1962 until his death in January 1983. Born in Manhattan, Rosenthal attended New York City public schools, Long Island University and City College before serving in the U.S. Army during WWII. He received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1949. In 1962, Rosenthal won a special election to the Eighty-Seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused when Rep. Lester Holtzman won a seat on the state Supreme Court; Rosenthal was then reelected to the 11 succeeding Congresses. During his congressional tenure, Rosenthal was an early opponent of the Vietnam War and a champion of consumer protection causes. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the Subcommittee for Commerce, Consumer, and Monetary Affairs.

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and influential figures in jazz, known for both his trumpet improvisations and his distinctive singing voice. He also broke down numerous racial divides in the music and entertainment worlds, becoming the first Black performer to get featured billing in a major Hollywood film ("Pennies From Heaven," 1936) and the first Black host of a national radio show (Fleischmann's Yeast Show, 1937). Born in New Orleans in 1901, Armstrong grew up impoverished in a racially segregated city. He dropped out of school in fifth grade to work, and developed a close relationship with a local Jewish family that gave him odd jobs and nurtured his love of music. By the age of 11, Armstrong wound up in the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, where he joined the band and studied the cornet in earnest. Upon his release from the home in 1914, he began working as a musician on Mississippi riverboats and other local venues. His reputation skyrocketed, and by the early 1920s he moved north, performing and recording with jazz bands in Chicago and New York. Throughout the 1920s and '30s, Armstrong made dozens of records with his own and many other ensembles, toured extensively, and began performing in Broadway productions and movies. After some business and health setbacks, and in response to changing musical tastes, Armstrong scaled his group down to a six-piece combo in the 1940s and resumed touring internationally, recording albums and appearing in movies. Some of his biggest popular hits came in the later years of his career, including "Hello Dolly" (1964) and "What A Wonderful World" (1967). His grueling schedule took its toll on his heart and kidneys and in 1968 he was forced to take time off to recuperate, but he began performing again in 1970. Armstrong died in his sleep in July 1971, just a few months after his final engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. This honorary street naming identifies this block of 107th Street as the location of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, formerly the home of Armstrong and his fourth wife, Lucille Wilson. After Lucille’s passing in 1983, she willed the home and its contents to the city of New York, which designated the City University of New York, Queens College to administer it. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and a New York City Landmark in 1988. The archives became accessible in the 1990s, and the historic house opened for public tours in 2003. It also now serves as a venue for concerts and educational programs.

Denis P. Gorman (1903-1963) was a civic leader devoted to providing recreational facilities for the youth of Queens. Through Gorman’s efforts, the City acquired this parkland, and today the playground honors his memory. Gorman also helped to bring franchised bus service to Jackson Heights in 1932. As the Chairman of the Youth Activities Committee he helped to build 20 Little League baseball fields in five months. He was head of the Elmjack Little League for ten years and was a founding member of local youth councils. Gorman also served as the Democratic District Leader of Jackson Heights. After a lifetime spent serving his city, Gorman died in August, 1963.

Born on February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, George Washington was born into a prosperous family, and was privately educated. He gained early experience as a land surveyor, and then joined the militia, serving as an officer in the French and Indian Wars from 1755-1758. Rising to the rank of colonel, he resigned his post, married Martha Dandridge (1731-1802), and returned as a gentleman farmer to the family plantation at Mount Vernon, Virginia, where he resided with his wife, Martha. He soon reentered public life, and served in succession as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1759-1774), and as a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses (1774-1775). Upon the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, Washington was made Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. His military prowess and inspirational leadership held the colonial armies together against overwhelming odds, and secured the evacuation and defeat of the British in 1783. Washington again retired to Mount Vernon, but his dissatisfaction with the new provisional government, caused him to resume an active role, and in 1787 he presided over the second federal constitutional convention in Philadelphia. He was then unanimously chosen first president of the United States, and was inaugurated at Federal Hall in New York City on April 30, 1789.  Washington was reelected to a second term in 1893, declined a third term, and retired from political life in 1797. Often referred to as “the father of our country,” Washington is universally regarded as having been instrumental in winning the American Revolution and in the establishment of the new nation. This statue honors George Washington’s close association with the Free and Accepted Masons, a fraternal order founded in 1717, and dedicated to human liberty, religious tolerance, and fellowship. He was installed as first master of Alexandria Lodge on April 28, 1788. The first version of this statue was created by De Lue in 1959 for the Louisiana Lodge. A full-size faux-patined plaster model was displayed at the Masonic Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair of 1964-65 in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.  Following the fair, the sculptor was commissioned to create this replica in bronze, and with the assistance of former Parks Commissioner and Fair President Robert Moses (1888-1981), a site was selected for permanent placement near the former Masonic Center. The statue, cast in Italy, and positioned on a pedestal of North Carolina pink granite, was dedicated on June 3, 1967, the same day in which the World’s Fair Corporation returned the park back to the City. Additional copies of the statue were installed at the Masonic Hospital in Wallingford, Connecticut and at the Detroit Civic Center in Michigan.

Betty Jean DiBiaso (1993-2015), a 21-year-old resident of Astoria, was killed in a hit-and-run accident while she was crossing the street at Ditmars Boulevard and 19th Street. In the aftermath of Ms. DiBiaso's death, the Department of Transportation, using community input, developed and implemented traffic safety measures in the Astoria Park area. These upgrades calmed traffic, separated cyclists from pedestrians and shortened the crossing distance for pedestrians.

NYPD Patrolman Benjamin M. Bruno (1928 - 1956) of Woodhaven was 28 years old when he was killed in a car accident in the line of duty. In the early hours of January 30, 1956, Patrolman Bruno was in pursuit of a speeding car headed east on Northern Boulevard, when a collision with a westbound car took place on a wet patch of pavement near 230th Street, on the border of Alley Pond Park and Douglaston-Little Neck. The collision killed both Bruno and Alexander Johnson, 19, of Corona. Johnson was a passenger in the car driven by his brother, Lindbergh Johnson. Bruno spent four years in the marines, before joining the NYPD in 1951, as part of Highway Unit 3. He was survived at the time by his parents Sylvia and Cono Bruno, along with three sisters and three brothers. A mass, attended by 300 police officers, was held for Patrolman Bruno at St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Woodhaven. He was buried at St. John Cemetery, in Middle Village. The stretch of Northern Boulevard between 234th Street and the Cross Island Parkway, the vicinity where Patrolman Bruno died while on duty, was named in his honor.

Edith Elida Torres (1970 – 2017) was a paramedic for 23 years. Like many of her fellow emergency workers, on the morning of September 11, 2001 she rushed to the World Trade Center despite being to help with the aftermath of the attack. She spent the rest of the day working the pile, rescuing survivors and looking for her colleague Carlos Lillo, who unbeknownst to Torres, had lost his life in the collapse of the south tower. She continued to serve as an emergency worker, rising to the rank of lieutenant in 2005. She also collaborated with Lillo’s family to honor him by having a park named in his memory as well as with the Carlos Lillo Memorial Paramedic Scholarship. She died of 9/11 related illness.

Bishop Moses Taylor (1924-2004) was founder of The Long Island City Gospel Tabernacle and the Center of Hope International (COHI), which provides various services to the needy. Taylor, was born in 1924, and came to the Queensbridge Houses/Long Island City community in 1961. He began the Long Island City Gospel Tabernacle with just 12 members, and later opened up the Center of Hope International Church at 12-11 40th Avenue in Long Island City. He was involved in many philanthropic endeavors including an award-winning bread pantry in LIC and the Astoria Outreach Ministries.

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Thomas J. Manton (1985 – 1999) was born in Manhattan and attended private Catholic schools in Queens and Brooklyn before becoming a flight navigator in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1951 to 1953. He graduated from St. John’s University in 1958 and was a member of the New York City Police Department from 1955 to 1960. He was admitted to the bar in 1963 and became a practicing attorney. In 1970, Manton was elected to the New York City Council, where he served from 1970 until 1984; he was then elected as a Democratic representative to Congress from 1985 until 1998. As co-chairman of the Congressional Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs, Manton helped persuade President Bill Clinton to meet with Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, in 1995. Manton also was the chairman of the Queens Democratic Organization for 20 years.

Virgil I. Grissom (1926-1967), also known as Gus, had an experienced life as a combat flier, jet instructor, and NASA astronaut. Grissom knew his passion for aircraft from his young adult years and pursued it as an aviation cadet and through studying mechanical engineering at Purdue University. Shortly after graduating, he obtained his pilot wings and went straight to work with the United States Air Force. During his time in the Air Force, the US was involved in the Korean War; as a result, Grissom flew over 100 combat missions with the 334th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. He left Korea in 1952 but was distinguished for his work with the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal Award. In 1959, Grissom was accepted to the original NASA Mercury Class of astronauts; only seven were let in. With his crew, Grissom worked tirelessly to make Mercury’s final test flights successful. He became the second American in outer space. From there, he served as Commander Pilot of the spacecraft Gemini III. After trials and tribulations, the Gemini crew was the first to accomplish orbital maneuvers around the world. Grissom was the backup pilot for Gemini 6 and commander for Apollo/Saturn 204, a three-man mission. During a launch pad test, Grissom and his team were killed in a flash fire. The mission was renamed Apollo 1 to honor those who were caught in the accident. His legacy lies with his family and the leadership he provided to everyone he worked with.

Paul Raimonda (1922–1988) was a community leader and lifelong resident of Long Island City. He served as the head of the Astoria Heights Homeowners and Tenants Association, an organization he founded in 1971 to provide residents with a unified voice. A graduate of P.S. 126 and William C. Bryant High School, Raimonda served four years in the Army Air Corps during World War II. While he was an active member of the Long Island Seneca Club, he is best known for his leadership in the 1980 campaign to block a state takeover and expansion of Rikers Island. Raimonda also served on Community Board 1 and the Liberty Regular Democratic Club. In April 1987, the Italian American Regular Democratic Association of Queens named him "Man of the Year," an honor that included recognition from Governor Mario Cuomo.

Firefighter Richie Allen (1970-2001) died during fire and rescue operations following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Sean McDonald (1968-1994) was a rookie police officer killed in the line of duty at the age of 26 when he interrupted the armed robbery of a Bronx tailor shop. Officer McDonald grew up in Astoria, after coming from Dublin as an infant. He had attended Most Precious Blood Grammar School, located next door to the church.

Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005) was a civil rights activist and leader for most of her life. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her father was a stonemason and carpenter and her mother was a teacher. After her parents separated, she moved to a farm in Pine Level, Alabama and lived with her mother, sibling, and grandparents. There, she and her family lived under constant threat by the Ku Klux Klan and went to a segregated school. Jim Crow laws made racism and white supremacy a part of her daily life. Rosa attended school through most of 11th grade but was forced to leave after a family illness. When she refused to give up her seat on a public bus to white passengers, Parks inspired the Montgomery bus boycott and, thus, the civil rights movement in the U.S. Though not the first Black person to refuse to give up their seat, the established activist had the backing of the Montgomery NAACP chapter as the chapter's secretary. The chapter president helped her appeal the arrest. They brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, who deemed racial bus segregation unconstitutional.

Peter G. Van Alst (1828 – 1900) was a surveyor who helped to build the roads and infrastructure of western Queens. Van Alst was born in Dutch Kills on May 28, 1828, and was a member of the large extended Van Alst family, a prominent Dutch farming family who moved to the area in the early 1700s and resided there until the 1870s, when they spread out and moved elsewhere. Van Alst received his education at the District School and the Astoria Institute. He apprenticed as a surveyor for a few years, and worked independently until 1872, when the city legislature appointed him to serve as a commissioner, surveying and supervising the construction of several roads in Long Island City, Queens. In 1874, Van Alst and three fellow Long Island City citizens comprised the First Ward Improvement Commission, which was in charge of raising the grades of Jackson Avenue from Vernon Avenue to the courthouse from three to eight feet, which profoundly affected the daily life of the city. Van Alst’s job consisted primarily of constructing maps, which revealed detailed organizations of street lines, grades, and sewage lines of the Long Island City area.

James Edward Heath (1926 – 2020) was a jazz legend who raised his family in the historic Dorie Miller co-ops in Corona and taught at Queens College. James “Jimmy” Heath was born in Philadelphia to Percy Heath Sr. and Arlethia Heath. He attended Walter George Smith School in South Philadelphia and graduated from Williston Industrial School in Wilmington, N.C., in 1943. His father was an auto mechanic who played the clarinet, performing on the weekends, and his mother sang in a church choir. His sister Elizabeth played piano; his older brother Percy Jr. played violin and bass; and his younger brother Albert “Tootie” Heath played the drums. As a teenager, Heath took music lessons and played alto saxophone in the high school marching band. He also played in a jazz band called the Melody Barons and toured with the Calvin Todd Band in 1945, before joining a dance band in Omaha, Nebraska led by Nat Towles. Small in stature (standing 5'3"), he was unable to serve during World War II, because he was under the weight limit. In 1946, he formed his own band, which was a fixture on the Philadelphia jazz scene until 1949. Heath's earliest big band (1947-1948) in Philadelphia included John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Ray Bryant, Specs Wright, Cal Massey, Johnny Coles, and Nelson Boyd. Charlie Parker and Max Roach sat in on occasion. In 1959, Heath briefly joined Miles Davis's group, replacing John Coltrane, and also worked with Kenny Dorham and Gil Evans. Heath recorded extensively as leader and sideman. During the 1960s, he frequently worked with Milt Jackson and Art Farmer. The biological father of R\&B songwriter/musician James “Mtume” Forman, Heath met his eventual wife, Mona Brown, whom he married in 1960; they had two children, Roslyn and Jeffrey. In the early 1960s, encouraged by friends Clark Terry and the Adderley brothers, the Heaths purchased an apartment in the Dorie Miller Cooperative Housing in Corona, where the Adderleys and Terry also lived. In 1987, Heath became a professor of music at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. There, he premiered his first symphonic work, "Three Ears," with Maurice Peress conducting. In 2010, his autobiography, "I Walked With Giants," was published; it was voted Best Book of The Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. He recorded three big band records -- "Little Man Big Band," produced by Bill Cosby, "Turn Up The Heath" and "Togetherness Live at the Blue Note." Heath received a Life Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America and the 2003 American Jazz Master Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was nominated for three Grammy Awards and has received three honorary doctorate degrees. He was also the first jazz musician to receive an honorary doctorate in music from the Juilliard School.

Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford (1928 - 2020) was a Hall of Fame Yankee pitcher from Queens who grew up playing baseball in the sandlots of Astoria before going pro; he was raised on the block now named after him. Ford made his major league debut pitching for the Yankees in 1950 and spent his entire career with the team. He helped the Yankees win six World Series titles and 11 American League pennants in his 16 seasons. He had a career record of 236-106, setting the Yankees’ record for victories. He was the Cy Young Award winner in 1961 and was a 10-time All-Star. His 10 World Series victories are the most for any pitcher. He pitched thirty-three and two-third consecutive scoreless innings in World Series play, breaking Babe Ruth’s record. He also holds the record for World Series starts with twenty-two, innings pitched with 146 and strikeouts with 94. "Whitey" Ford was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

Father John J. Gribbon (1925-2005) was a priest with the Church of St. Anastasia in Douglaston for 39 years. He also served as chaplain for the Little Neck-Douglaston Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Rabbi Moshe Neuman (1930-2022) dedicated his life to spiritual and academic leadership, helping to grow the Bais Yaakov Academy from a small, 27-student school in Corona into a four-story school with 850 students on Metropolitan Avenue in Kew Gardens. Rabbi Neuman was born in Germany on August 9, 1930. Later in Brooklyn, his professional life initially headed toward tax law, but his talents as a teacher soon became apparent, and he worked as a substitute. He began as a third grade rebbe and assistant principal in Detroit, where he worked for four years. When he married Rivkah Hollander, they moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania. There, Rabbi Neuman served as principal of the Jewish Community Center Day School until 1961, when he accepted the position of principal at Bais Yaakov Academy and moved his family back to New York. He went on to lead the school for more than 50 years. Former students remembered him as a warm, welcoming, hands-on presence who remembered everyone's name. Above all, they remember learning from him about the development of community as an essential civic responsibility. On April 15, 2022, Rabbi Neuman suffered a fall at shul on the first night of Pesach. Unfortunately he passed away on May 3, 2022, leaving behind his wife, their sons Rabbi Shomie, Reb Yossie, and Rabbi Nosson, and their daughter Perel Cohen, and Brochie Kramer. Councilmember Lynn Schulman proposed changing this street name in Rabbi Neuman's honor, and the memorial was dedicated just outside of Bais Yaakov Academy in 2023.

The following was received from Helen Day, president of the Richmond Hill Historical Society: Ivan Mrakovcic, president of the Richmond Hill Historical Society, passed away on February 27, 2020, after a valiant battle with brain cancer. Ivan was one of the founding members of the Richmond Hill Historical Society in 1997 with the late Nancy Cataldi and other like-minded individuals who looked to preserve historic Richmond Hill. Ivan loved this community and worked tirelessly in so many ways to preserve its historic character and charm, leading the charge for the historic preservation of Richmond Hill after Nancy’s passing in 2008. Ivan’s perseverance resulted in the establishment of a Historic District in North Richmond Hill on the New York State and National Historic Registers in March 2019. Ivan was much more than our president; he was our dear friend and neighbor, like a brother and definitely a kindred spirit, who will always be with us. As one of our board members said, we were so lucky to have known him and to have had him be part of our lives. That is a great testimony for anyone. Ivan left a legacy of accomplishments that will always be remembered, and we have many memories that bring a smile to our hearts.

Tommie Lee Agee (1942-2001) helped the New York Mets win the World Series in 1969 and was a resident of Queens for much of his life. Born in Alabama, Agee initially signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1961 but mostly played in the minor leagues for them. He was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1965 and won the AL Rookie of the Year in his first full year of play. Agee was traded to the Mets in 1968 and played a large role in their successful season of 1969, leading the team in home runs (26), RBIs (76) and runs scored (97). The Mets had 100 winning games in 1969 and won the World Series, thanks in part to two amazing catches by Agee in Game 3 that are remembered to this day. Agee was the first African American player to win a Gold Glove award in both the American League and National League. He is also credited with the longest home run in Shea Stadium at 505 feet on April 10, 1969. Injuries shortened Agee's career, and he retired after the 1973 season in which he played for both the Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals. But he would remain in the New York area, living and working in East Elmhurst for more than 30 years. He died of a heart attack in January 2001. Agee was posthumously inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 2002, the last Met so honored at Shea Stadium. The naming and location of the Tommie L. Agee Educational Campus (I.S. 419) is particularly significant because it is the former site of The Outfielder's Lounge, a bar that Agee owned with fellow Met Cleon Jones; it was also where he met his wife Maxcine. At the naming ceremony, New York City Mayor Eric Adams concluded his speech by proclaiming Aug. 26, 2022, “Tommie Lee Agee Day.”

Roy Wilkins (1901-1981) was a Civil Rights activist and NAACP leader. In his early days, he became the editor of the Kansas City Call in 1923, a weekly newspaper serving the Black community of Kansas City, Missouri. He also helped organize the historic March on Washington in August 1963 and participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965 and the March Against Fear in Mississippi in 1966. Under Wilkins's direction, NAACP played a major role in many civil rights victories of the 1950s and 1960s, including Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act.

Mike Crowley (1936-2007) was a founding member and president of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group (JHBG). Under his leadership, JHBG landmarked Jackson Heights as a historic district, operated the first ever community based anti-graffiti program in the City, established the JHBG Architectural and Good Neighbor Awards, the JHBG Halloween Parade, the garden club, created the Friends of Travers Park, operated Town Hall Meetings and Candidates Nights and created the publication of a community newsletter.

Officer Disdale Enton, a four-year veteran of the NYPD, was assigned to the 113th Precinct. He collapsed and died on August 28, 2002, after suffering a brain aneurysm while chasing a suspect in Jamaica, Queens.

Dr. Paul Klapper (1885-1952) was the first president and guiding force behind the establishment of Queens College. Born in Romania, Klapper came to the U.S. with his parents as a child and enrolled at City College at the age of 14. After receiving his A.B. degree, he taught in the New York City public schools and at City College, eventually earning an M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. He became head of the education department at City College in 1917, and served as dean of the college from 1922 to 1937, when he was asked to lead the newly created Queens College. Klapper personally selected the college’s first faculty, as well as the 400 students who enrolled in that first year. He led the college through its first decade, retiring in 1948. He then served as acting dean of teacher education for CUNY's five four-year colleges, and was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago from 1949 to 1951. He passed away in 1952 at the age of 66. Over the course of his career, Klapper also was a member of the board of trustees for The State University of New York, Brandeis University and The New York State Commission Against Discrimination. He received various honorary degrees from institutions including Yeshiva University, Columbia University and Queens College. His papers are housed in Queens College's Department of Special Collections and Archives. P.S./M.S. 219, named in Dr. Klapper's honor, is a public school serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

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Sergeant Carl R. Sohncke (1894 – 1918) was born and raised in Woodside Queens and worked as a printer before he enlisted in the United States Army in 1915 to fight in WWI. He served for three years, the last 8 months in France as Sergeant of Company M in the 28th Infantry. He was killed in action in France while reconnoitering with his platoon across "no man's land" under heavy German shell fire on May 28, 1918. He became Woodside's first fallen hero of WWI. His body was returned to New York in December 1921, and after a funeral at his parent's home, Sgt. Sohncke was buried at Maple Grove Cemetery, with full military honors provided by members of the Edward J. Lange Post, American Legion of Winfield conducting the burial service. A firing squad from Governor’s Island paid the soldier’s tribute to their comrade-in-arms. Carl wrote a song while stationed in Panama before being transferred to France. It is called "Dear Old New York" - words by Carl R. Sohncke, music by ESS Huntington, copyright 7 Jul 1916 by Carl R Sohncke, Las Casadas, Panama.

Detective Anastasios Tsakos (d. 2021) was a 14-year veteran of the NYPD’s highway patrol unit, the 43 year old was killed when he was struck by an intoxicated driver as he directed traffic away from another fatal accident on the Long Island Expressway in Queens. Tsakos was born in Dover, N.H. and then moved with his parents to Greece, their home country, where he lived until he was 14. The family then came to Astoria, Queens, where Tsakos graduated high school. Tsakos earned his undergraduate degree in aviation administration from Dowling College on Long Island - he had a dream to fly airplanes and helicopters. After college, he worked at his father’s Port Washington diner for a while, and then returned to Greece and enlisted in the Greek army, where he became second lieutenant. In 2007, he moved back to the U.S. and joined the NYPD with the goal of flying an NYPD helicopter. He worked in the 75th and 83rd precincts before joining the highway patrol unit.

Fiorello H. LaGuardia (1882–1947) was born in New York City to immigrant parents, attended public schools and graduated from New York University Law School in 1910. After practicing law for several years, he was elected as the nation’s first Italian American member of Congress in 1916. He served as a U.S. Representative until 1919, when he resigned to join the Army Air Service and serve in World War I. Upon his return, he was president of the New York City Board of Aldermen in 1920 and 1921, and was re-elected to Congress from 1923 to 1933. LaGuardia then served as mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945. Among LaGuardia's many achievements as mayor, he is credited with unifying and modernizing New York City's public transit system, consolidating much of the city government, cracking down on illegal gambling, and beginning transportation projects that created many of the city’s bridges, tunnels, parkways and airports. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Queens College. In September 1937, Mayor LaGuardia broke ground on this airport's site. Its construction was funded through a $45 million Federal Works Progress Administration grant. More than half of the 558 acres on which the airport was built was man-made, filled in with more than 17 million cubic yards of cinders, ashes and trash. The new airport opened in 1939 as New York City Municipal Airport. In August 1940, the Board of Estimates renamed the facility for LaGuardia, who considered the project one of his greatest achievements. Today it is the third largest airport in the New York metropolitan area.

Lt. Col. Haldane King (1921-2013) was a Tuskegee Airman who served in WWII. Born in Brooklyn, he was the sixth of seven children of Charles and Estelle (Stansberry) King. King earned a basketball scholarship to Long Island University, where he played on championship teams under Coach Clair Bee. In early 1942, he volunteered for military service in World War II and entered pilot training in Tuskegee, Alabama. He became part of the first class (43J) of African-American bomber pilots in the Army Air Corps. Trained at Tuskegee in 1943, King flew U.S. planes over Europe and North Africa. He recalled that military service presented significant obstacles for Black men. "The whole idea at the time was that you weren’t qualified to be an officer of the United States Air Force," King stated. "You were a Tuskegee Airman, which didn’t mean anything to them. You couldn’t get into the officers’ club." While white officers enjoyed refreshments between flights, King had to remain in his plane or bring his own food. After the war, King returned to New York and became one of the first African Americans to join the New York Fire Department. In 1950, he was recalled into the newly integrated Air Force and served in Germany as part of the Army of Occupation following WWII. His military career then took him and his family to Maine, Germany, California, and eventually the Pentagon, where he retired from active service. He later moved to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and frequently shared his military experiences at local schools and community events.

Queens Public Library Connection Pamela Kay Armstrong Petties (b. 1940) was an active community member, advocate, and educator who was born, raised, and lived in East Elmhurst, Queens. This section of 98th Street, co-named in her honor, is the same one where she was born and where her father built the family home. Her daughters, Wendy and Daria, were also born in a home nearby on 98th Street. Biography Contributed by her Daughters: Pamela Kay Armstrong Petties was born on April 3, 1940, and proudly called East Elmhurst home for most of her life. She built her life here, raising her family, nurturing her community, and creating a lasting impact. She was a pioneer in early childhood education, helping to found the first daycare center at Resurrection Church in the 1960s, and later serving for over 30 years at Malcolm X Day Care Center, where she supported and shaped the lives of countless children and families. Pamela believed in people. She believed in conversation, connection, and showing up for others in meaningful ways. She was known for her warmth, her presence, and her ability to make people feel seen and heard. She also believed in living fully. She loved to travel, not just for herself, but by bringing others along, often giving people their very first opportunity to see the world. She stayed deeply connected to her community through spaces like the Langston Hughes Community Library & Cultural Center, where she was a member of the Library Action Committee. She often brought children from both the daycare center she founded and from Malcolm X Day Care Center to the library, ensuring they experienced everything it offered: books, programs, and a space that encouraged learning, curiosity, and imagination. At her core, Pamela was about family, connection, and presence—and it is incredibly meaningful to have her name permanently rooted in the neighborhood she loved. - Wendy Petties April 7, 2026 Pamela Kay Armstrong Petties Way street co-naming was celebrated on April 4, 2026, with a reception at Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center afterward.

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and influential figures in jazz, known for both his trumpet improvisations and his distinctive singing voice. He also broke down numerous racial divides in the music and entertainment worlds, becoming the first Black performer to get featured billing in a major Hollywood film ("Pennies From Heaven," 1936) and the first Black host of a national radio show (Fleischmann's Yeast Show, 1937). Born in New Orleans in 1901, Armstrong grew up impoverished in a racially segregated city. He dropped out of school in fifth grade to work, and developed a close relationship with a local Jewish family that gave him odd jobs and nurtured his love of music. By the age of 11, Armstrong wound up in the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, where he joined the band and studied the cornet in earnest. Upon his release from the home in 1914, he began working as a musician on Mississippi riverboats and other local venues. His reputation skyrocketed, and by the early 1920s he moved north, performing and recording with jazz bands in Chicago and New York. Throughout the 1920s and '30s, Armstrong made dozens of records with his own and many other ensembles, toured extensively, and began performing in Broadway productions and movies. After some business and health setbacks, and in response to changing musical tastes, Armstrong scaled his group down to a six-piece combo in the 1940s and resumed touring internationally, recording albums and appearing in movies. Some of his biggest popular hits came in the later years of his career, including "Hello Dolly" (1964) and "What A Wonderful World" (1967). His grueling schedule took its toll on his heart and kidneys and in 1968 he was forced to take time off to recuperate, but he began performing again in 1970. Armstrong died in his sleep in July 1971, just a few months after his final engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. The original Louis Armstrong Stadium was constructed as the Singer Bowl for the Singer Sewing Machine Company's 1964-65 World’s Fair exhibit and renamed for Armstrong in 1972. Armstrong had lived in nearby Corona from 1943 until his death in 1971. In 1978, the stadium was refurbished and reconfigured when the United States Tennis Association moved the annual U.S. Open to Flushing Meadows from its previous home in Forest Hills. In 2018, the old stadium was replaced with a brand-new Louis Armstrong Stadium, featuring 14,000 seats and a retractable roof. A bronze plaque from the original stadium's dedication to Armstrong has been installed over the ticket window of the new construction.

Remington Vernam (1842-1907) was born in McConnville, New York, and moved to New York City with his family in 1854. He attended public school and went on to law school. He first came to Far Rockaway as a retreat from the stress of his work as a lawyer, but soon saw an opportunity to develop the area.

Tom Seaver (1944-2020), also known as “The Franchise” and "Tom Terrific," signed with the New York Mets in 1966 and pitched for the team from 1967 to 1977. He won the National League Rookie of the Year in 1967 and Cy Young Award in 1969. During his time with the team, he was selected to ten All-Star teams, led the league in strikeouts five times, and had five one-hitters and five 20-win seasons. He also led the "Miracle Mets” to win the World Series in 1969 and appeared again in the 1973 World Series. Fans were heartbroken when Seaver was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in June 1977, where he continued to dominate. He finally pitched a no-hitter in 1978 and recorded his 3,000th strikeout in 1981. He found himself back on the Mets in 1983 and finished his career with the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox from 1984 to 1986. When he retired in 1987, he had a record of 311-205, with a 2.86 ERA and 3,640 strikeouts. Seaver was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1992 and wears the New York Mets cap on his plaque in the Hall. After retiring from playing, Seaver continued with baseball as an announcer, working for both the New York Yankees (1989-1993) and New York Mets (1999-2005) before retiring again to run Seaver Vineyards in California. The Mets retired Seaver's uniform number, 41, in 1988. Shortly before his death in 2020, the New York Mets changed their address to 41 Seaver Way, naming the part of 126th street outside the ballpark in his honor. On April 15, 2022, a statue of Seaver created by sculptor William Behrends was unveiled in front of the stadium. The bronze and stainless steel work, which stands 10 feet high and weighs more than 33,000 pounds, depicts Seaver in his trademark pitching stance.

Firefighter William “Billy” Tolley (1974-2017) was a 14-year veteran of the FDNY who was assigned to Ladder 135. Before he was able to join the FDNY, Billy was a volunteer firefighter with the Hicksville Fire Department, Rescue 8, attaining the rank of lieutenant. In 2011, he joined the Bethpage Fire Department and was assigned to Ladder Company 3. He was killed in the line of duty while helping contain an apartment fire in Queens, falling to his death from the roof of a five-story building. In addition to being a firefighter, he was also a talented drummer whose passion for percussion led him to become a influential drummer in the heavy metal scene. With his band, Internal Bleeding, he helped write and release five very successful albums that made strong impressions on drummers across the world. He is survived by his wife, Marie, and daughter, Isabella. This street renaming near Billy’s firehouse, Ladder 135, occurred on September 26, 2018.

Firefighter Stephen Elliot “Bells” Belson (1950–2001) was killed at the World Trade Center during fire and rescue operations following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Belson was born and raised in Flushing. He attended Francis Lewis High School and Lehman College, where he graduated with a degree in physical education in 1973. After moving to Rockaway Beach, Steve worked for several years as a lifeguard. The beach was "home" and he loved surfing. The beach at 92nd Street, where Steve patrolled as a lifeguard was named “Bells Beach.” With a group of fellow lifeguards, Steve joined the fire department. He worked for most of his 22 years on the job with the Ladder 24 Company on Manhattan's West Side. Over the years, many of his buddies took promotion exams and moved up the ranks, but Steve just wanted to be a firefighter, and he received many commendations for bravery. In 2001 Belson had seriously injured his back and was recovering from spinal surgery so he had accepted a lighter duty assignment to keep doing the job he loved with the FDNY. He was working as an aid to Battalion Chief Orio J. Palmer, when the Twin Towers were attacked, and both rushed to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 - neither returned. When last heard from, Belson had reached the 40th floor, racing to get to those who were trapped. Then he and the others were gone.

Exterior of the Lewis H. Latimer House, 2018

Alfred "Al" Oerter Jr. (1936-2007) was a four-time Olympic Champion in the discus throw, and the first athlete to win a gold medal in the same event in four consecutive Olympic Games. Oerter was born in Astoria and grew up in Long Island. As a child, he had high blood pressure and spent little time participating in athletics. His start in discus throwing was accidental and would become a legend: as a teenager, a discus fell into his path as he was running. When he casually threw the discus back, it soared far past the original thrower, revealing Oerter’s hidden talent. Five years later, he would be an Olympic gold medalist. When he won his first gold medal, at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, he was so overwhelmed that he nearly fainted on the medal podium. The following year, he was in a car accident that rendered his throwing inconsistent. He nonetheless managed to win another gold medal in the 1960 Olympics. In all Olympic Games he competed in, he was never the favorite to win, often going into the games with various injuries, but he managed to continue winning gold until his retirement after the 1968 Olympics. Oerter was never interested in being a full-time athlete, and worked as a computer specialist for Grumman Aircraft Corporation alongside his Olympic career. After his retirement, he toured as a public speaker and became an abstract painter. He co-founded Art of the Olympians, an organization dedicated to supporting Olympian and Paralympian athletes’ creative expression and celebrating the connections between art and sports. Oerter was married twice, first to Corinne Benedetto, with whom he had two daughters, and second to Cathy Carroll. He made his home in Fort Myers, Florida, where he died in 2007. The Al Oerter Recreation Center in Flushing opened in 2008 and was named for Oerter in honor of his Queens origins.

Nina Adams (1944-2015) was president of the Queensbridge Tenant Association and received many awards in recognition of her community work. She represented approximately 12,000 residents of the Queensbridge Houses, and lobbied city, state and federal officials for programs to benefit them. She started the Queensbridge Outreach program, which organizes after-school activities and field trips to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., for children from Queensbridge. During the 1980s, she took in many children under her own care to keep them from wandering dangerous streets after school.

Hortense Powdermaker was one of the original members of Queens College’s faculty. She was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Philadelphia, earned a B.A. in history from Goucher College in 1919 and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of London in 1928. The following year, she became the first woman anthropologist to live alone among the Melanesians of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea; she published her study of the experience, Life in Lesu, in 1933. For periods in 1932-1934, Powdermaker lived in Indianola, Mississippi, examining its Black and white communities and their interactions. Her book, After Freedom (1939), is still notable for its insightful analysis of race relations and of the impact of psychological adaptations to segregation. Powdermaker joined Queens College upon its opening in 1937 and founded the departments of anthropology and sociology. During her 30-year teaching career at Queens, she continued to conduct research and published highly influential books on racism (Probing Our Prejudices, 1944) and the social structure of the American filmmaking industry (Hollywood: The Dream Factory, 1950). Her final book, Stranger and Friend: The Way of an Anthropologist, was published in 1966 as a candid examination of her fieldwork experiences and the appropriate role of the anthropologist and social scientist. She retired from Queens College in 1968 and was undertaking a study of youth culture in Berkeley when she died in 1970. Powdermaker Hall was built in 1962 as the Social Science Building, sometimes called Academic I. In 1977, it was renamed to honor Powdermaker. The building is home to the college’s departments of anthropology and sociology, along with its School of Education. The Hortense Powdermaker Papers are housed in the college library’s Department of Special Collections and Archives.

Remington Vernam (1842-1907) was born in McConnville, New York, and moved to New York City with his family in 1854. He attended public school and went on to law school. He first came to Far Rockaway as a retreat from the stress of his work as a lawyer, but soon saw an opportunity to develop the area. His wife Florence, noticing that he signed his checks "R. Vernam," decided to name the hotel and surrounding community as a variation, "Arverne," which she thought had a nice French sound.

Frank Carvill (1952-2004) was an immigrant rights campaigner who was killed on National Guard duty in Iraq. Carvill was a founding member of the Irish Immigration Reform and also a founding member of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, where he was later its treasurer and a board member. He was killed in Iraq on June 4 in a landmine attack on a vehicle in which he was traveling. He and another soldier killed in the same attack and were the first New Jersey National Guards to be killed in combat since World War II.

Thomas X. Winberry (d. 2011) was born and raised in Forest Hills, where he was an active member of the community. Winberry enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 19 and served in the Korean War. After coming home, he joined the American Legion, eventually becoming commander of the Forest Hills American Legion Continental Post 1424. He served as commander for seven years until becoming Queens County Commander. Under his leadership, the American Legion Continental Post No. 1424 became a focal spot for our community provided a location for “Kidz Care Home Alone Thanksgiving” dinners, a place to distribute new school supplies, or for civic associations to hold meetings. Winberry was also a mounted officer for the NYPD and was awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor for rescuing a drowning swimmer in the East River. This was only one of fifteen times that he was cited for acts of courage in his 20 years on the force. He was an advocate of veterans’ rights and worked to preserve the St. Albans Veterans complex, a healthcare facility for veterans and their families. He was 78 when he passed away on June 29, 2011.

Chester Floyd Carlson (1906–1968) was the Seattle-born physicist and attorney who revolutionized modern business by inventing the Xerox process. After earning a physics degree from Caltech in 1930 and a law degree from New York Law School in 1939, Carlson sought a way to copy documents without messy wet inks. In 1938, in his laboratory on the second floor of the house at 32-05 37th Street in Astoria, with partner Otto Kornei, he successfully created the world’s first xerographic image. This breakthrough led to the founding of the Xerox Corporation, whose researchers later pioneered essential computing tools like the mouse and the graphical user interface (GUI). In his later years, Carlson became a dedicated philanthropist, donating much of his wealth to civil rights, humanitarian efforts, and spiritual causes.

Nepalese mountaineer Tenzing Norgay Sherpa (1914-1986) and Sir Edmund Hillary became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. In 1999, they were among TIME’s 100 most influential people of the 20th century. The neighborhood in which Norgay's honorary street is located is currently home to a large Nepali community.

Manuel de Dios Unanue (1943-1992) was a Cuban-born journalist and radio host who was killed in New York City in 1992. De Dios was born in Cuba in 1943 and moved to the United States in 1973, after time spent in Spain and Puerto Rico, he settled in Elmhurst, Queens. He worked as a journalist for several Spanish-language newspapers in New York City, before becoming editor-in-chief of El Diario La Prensa, the largest Spanish-Language newspaper in NYC, in 1984. De Dios was best known for his investigative reporting on the Colombian drug trade. He wrote extensively about the drug cartels that operated in Queens, and he named names. His reporting made him a target of the drug traffickers, and he was slain on March 11, 1992, by a hitman for the Colombian drug cartel in the Meson Asturias restaurant on 83rd Street in Queens.

Patrick Collins was an Irish-American from Woodside who died on a European battlefield during World War 1.

Patrolman Arthur Howarth (d. 1938) had served with the NYPD for 11 years when he was killed in a car crash with another police car while both were responding to an alarm. Howarth was with the 85th Precinct when he and Patrolman Angelo Favata responded to a report of a stabbing at 7:30pm on July 9, 1938. They collided with the other police car, which was also responding to the call, at the corner of Bushwick and Johnson Avenues in Brooklyn. The impact led the two cars to collide with a third car, which was parked. Howarth suffered a fractured skull, and died in the hospital an hour later. Favata, also suffering from a fractured skull, died later. The two officers in the other car, Patrolman Philip Faber and Patrolman Paul Storll, suffered injuries but survived. A man in the parked car was also injured. Howarth was 33 years old at the time of his passing. He left behind his wife, Rose, who had been in critical condition at the time following a leg amputation after the birth of their daughter a few weeks earlier. Family and police officials held a funeral procession on July 13, 1938, from the home of Howarth's mother-in-law in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to St. Columbkille Church (now Ss. Cyril & Methodius Church), after which Howarth was buried at St. John's Cemetery. Council Member Robert Holden proposed this street co-naming in June 2024, and a commemoration ceremony took place on November 16, 2024. The intersection is near where Howarth had lived, at 72-21 Calmus Avenue.

Detective Picciano (1938-1971), a 10-year veteran of the NYPD, was assigned to the 41st Detective Squad in the Bronx. On February 15, 1971, he was shot and killed at the 41st Precinct building while fingerprinting a suspect that he and other detectives had arrested for abducting a 13-year-old boy. Other members of the Detective Squad were able to return fire, killing the suspect. Det. Picciano resided in Maspeth, Queens, with his wife Theresa and their three children.

Ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Wilson Rantus Rock, October 27, 2022.

Geraldine Anne Ferraro (1935–2011) was the first woman nominated for vice president by a major U.S. political party and the first Italian American to run on a national ticket. Ferraro came to the campaign with over two decades of experience in law and politics. Ferraro was born in Newburgh, NY in 1935, and at age 10 moved to the Bronx after the death of her father. She attended Marymount Academy and went on to graduate from Marymount Manhattan College in 1956. Early in her career, Ferraro worked as an elementary school teacher in Astoria, Queens while attending night classes at Fordham University School of Law until her graduation with honors in 1960. In the same year, she married her husband John Zaccaro, a Forest Hills real estate broker. The couple lived at 22 Deepdene Rd, just a few blocks from the co-named street, from 1967 to 2002. Ferraro worked part-time as a lawyer while raising her children, Donna, John and Laura, in Forest Hills. From 1974-1978, Ferraro worked at the Queens District Attorney office, first with an assistant district attorney position offered by her cousin, District Attorney Nicholas Ferraro, and then with the Special Victims Bureau, a position which shifted her toward a slightly more liberal perspective. Ferraro decided to run for the Queens seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, which opened the same year she left the D.A. office. The attorney won the Democratic nomination and the election, serving New York's 9th District as the first congresswoman from Queens from 1979 until 1985. Over the course of her campaign and tenure as a U.S. representative, Ferraro platformed liberal policies such as robust elderly support and reproductive rights, as well as supporting some conservative legislation related to school desegregation, school prayer and tuition tax credits. These political choices gained the representative favor within the Democratic party, because the platform as a whole appealed to a diverse audience, and paved Ferraro's path to Vice Presidential nomination. In the 1984 presidential election, Ferraro served as Walter Mondale’s Democratic running mate. When they lost the election, Ferraro returned to practicing law and eventually worked in public office again when appointed by President Bill Clinton to the United Nations Human Rights Council in 1993. In 2011, after a 12 year battle with multiple myeloma (a form of blood cancer), Ferraro passed away in Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital at the age of 75. Forest Hills community members, family, friends and city officials came together the following year to commemorate Ferraro at the unveiling of "Geraldine Ferraro Way."

Detective Randolph Holder (d. 2015) came from a family of Guyanese immigrants who all served as police officers and settled in Rockaway, Queens. Holder had served with the New York City Police Department for five years and was assigned to Police Service Area 5. He and his partner were on patrol in East Harlem when they responded to a call of shots fired. The officers canvassed the area for the suspect and located him approximately 18 blocks away, near a footbridge over Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive at 120th Street. A gun battle ensued, and Officer Holder was struck in the exchange of gunfire and was killed in the line of duty on October 20, 2015. He was 33 years old. The suspect, who had been wounded in the exchange of gunfire, was located several blocks away by responding officers and taken into custody.

Tarlach Mac Niallais (1963 - 2020) was an LGBTQ+ activist and disability rights advocate for over three decades. Born in Belfast, Ireland, he began campaigning on LGBTQ+ and Republican prisoners’ rights issues in the 1980s, and protested Ian Paisley’s anti-gay Free Presbyterian Church and the Democratic Unionist Party. He moved to NYC in the mid-1980s and became involved with the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization “Lavender and Green”, where he became a formation manager, and was active in the protracted struggle by LGBTQ groups to be fully included in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade up Fifth Avenue in the 1990s until 2016, when the Lavender and Green Alliance and other Irish LGBTQ groups could finally march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. He died of complications from the COVID-19 virus on April 1, 2020.

Howard Ames Von Dohlen (1895-1918) Died in battle in France during WWI. Von Dohlen grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, and attended a local public high before working for the brokerage firm V.C. Brown. He was a member of the Men’s Club Epiphany Church of Ozone Park and was also Superintendent of the Sunday School Epiphany P.E. Church. In June 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Cavalry and was assigned to Troop D, Squadron A of the New York National Guard. Von Dohlen was promoted to corporal while stationed in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and then again to sergeant shortly before his unit sailed for France in May 1918. Sergeant Von Dohlen assumed a leadership role during every engagement and battle in which the 27th Division fought. On three separate occasions he volunteered to carry wounded men to the dressing station through a heavy counter barrage of enemy artillery and machine gun fire. On the morning of October 17, 1918, Von Dohlen was killed in action while commanding a machine gun section in the Battle of La Salle River in St. Supplet, France. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action.

James B. Colgate (1818-1904) was the son of multimillionaire William Colgate, founder of Colgate Soap Company – now known as Colgate-Palmolive. James started a New York Stock Exchange brokerage firm in 1852. During his lifetime, Colgate donated over a million dollars to Madison University in Hamilton, NY., which was later renamed Colgate University in his honor. With this he supported the construction of various buildings and the university’s endowment fund. Upon his death, he left money to the Baptist Educational Society in New York.

The Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner Clock Tower sits atop the main library on the campus of Queens College.