USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 32
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 32
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Mr. Kalin belongs to the Suffolk County Farm Bureau and is a member of the Florists Telegraph De- livery Association. In religion he is affiliated with the Methodist church. His recreation is baseball and linnting.
At Greenport, Suffolk County, New York, on June 24, 1923, Lewis J. Kalin married Marguerite E. Brown, a daughter of Herbert R. and Viola E. (Brady) Brown. Six children have been born to Lewis J. and Marguerite E. (Brown) Kalin: I. Herbert, on September 24, 1924. After graduation from high school, he answered the call to the colors in World War II, and as a member of Company B, 106th En- gineers, of the United States Army, he served with gallantry for three and a half years, seeing much action in the Pacific Theater of Operations, receiving battle stars and a Presidential citation, and being pro- moted to the rank of corporal before his honorable discharge. Since leaving the armed service Herbert Kalin has been associated with his father in the latter's business. 2. Robert R., born on June 5, 1927. He left high school to join the United States Navy, and became a seaman second class. 3. Donald L., who was born on February 23, 1929, and graduated from high school. 4. Lloyd C., born September 14, 1931 5. Marjorie R., born on August 16, 1932. 6. Barbara L. born on April 29, 1935.
THE DZUS FASTENER COMPANY, INC .- This successful business was built on an ingenious invention of its founder, William Dzus.
In the early 1930's Mr. Dzus saw the need for a new type of fastening device to meet the requirements of the aircraft industry. He saw that the industry required a quick-acting, self-locking fastener which could withstand the vibration and high stresses and strains encountered in the aircraft field. He developed the well-known spiral cam fastener which is now
identified by the trade-mark "Dzus" throughout the world.
The business began as a small one-man business in a garage in West Islip, Suffolk County. How- ever, it was another case of a man with a better mouse trap, and after the first difficult problems of design and production were solved, the business grew rapidly.
In 1936, the present corporation was formed and shortly thereafter a modern factory was built on Union Street extension (John Street), West Islip, Suffolk County, New York. This plant, with several additions, is the present factory of the Dzus Fastener Company, Inc.
Originally, the product was sold entirely to the aircraft industry. However, prior to the war, it began to spread into other industries such as the railroad, bus, truck, farm equipment, radio, electronic and machinery industries.
During the war, the entire output of the plant was used for war production or for war supporting indus- tries. It is interesting to note that the Dzus spiral cam fastener was standard equipment on the military aircraft of all of the United Nations. Also, infringing copies were used on the aircraft of the enemy coun- tries.
Upon the conclusion of the war, the program of extending the use of the fastener into non-aircraft fields has been renewed and continued. One interest- ing development in this field is a modified form of fastener used in the surgical field for bone fixation. This fastener eliminates the necessity of using plaster casts and other immobilizing devices in certain types of fractures and dislocations.
WILLIAM DZUS-The Dzus fastener has been the standard fastener in the aviation industry since the I930S. Quick-acting, self-locking and detachable, it is used for fastening any type of door, panel or re- movable part in all phases of the industrial, electronic, plastics, communications and transportation fields. It is the invention of a Galician-born Ukrainian who, like thousands of others from that part of the world, came to the United States in the years before World War I in quest of opportunity-a man who found opportunity and proved equal to it: William Dzus, today the head of the Dzus Fastener Company of West Islip, a company with ramifications in various regions of the world outside Suffolk County.
Mr. Dzus was born at Czernychiwci, in Eastern Galicia, now in Poland, then a part of the Austria- Hungarian Empire, on January 5, 1895. His parents were John and Ksenka (Kernychna) Dzus, the father being a farmer. The family was of Ukrainian stock. Mr. Dzus worked on his father's farm while he ob- tained a common-school education in Austria-Hungary. In 1913, when he was eighteen years old, he came to the United States and continued his education in mechanical and technical fields.
Always of an inventive turn of mind, he developed a radically new type of fastener which locks and un- locks in a quarter turn, is secure and vibration proof and affords quick access with safety and dependability. This and other fasteners invented by Mr. Dzus were widely used by Allied Powers on military equipment in World War II and was as widely copied by the Axis Powers for use on their own equipment. The
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copies were made from Allied Nations equipment shot down or otherwise captured in battle.
Mr. Dzus became the manufacturer of his own inventions in 1932, when he organized what was later (1936) incorporated as the Dzus Fastener Company. He has been president of the company ever since. In 1939, Mr. Dzus helped to organize and became director of Dzus Fastener Europe, Ltd. His own name, Dzus, is the company's registered trade mark.
Mr. Dzus is a member of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, the Air Power League, the National Aeronautical Association and the National Association of Manufacturers. He and his family worship at the Greek Orthodox Church.
Mr. Dzus has been twice married. His first wife was Eva Skalecka, whom he married in Newark, New Jersey, in September, 1917, and who died. The pres- ent Mrs. Dzus is the former Anna Reszitnyk, whom he married in Babylon in March, 1927. A son, Theo- dore, was born to the first marriage-on December 12, 1918.
PETER ZORN-Taking advantage of the superior opportunities provided by the soil, climate, and proximity to large markets, Peter Zorn has become one of the large growers of chickens, eggs and turkeys at Bethpage.
Peter Zorn was born in Bruchsal, Germany, on March 12, 1907, son of Joseph and Julianna Zorn. After attending the public schools of his native coun- try he entered a trade school and had a sound educa- tional background when, in 1925, he migrated to the United States and for the first few months worked on a farm in Montgomery, New York. He then had a chance to follow at Poughkeepsie the butcher trade he had learned in Germany. After a year in the Hudson River town, he went to New York City where he continued his trade for eight years.
Peter Zorn was thoroughly familiar with the mar- keting of meats and poultry in the American metro- polis when he moved out to the Flushing area of Long Island, and began the production of poultry and eggs, operating under his own name. Later he spent about eighteen months in Bohemia, Long Island, and was in Glenwood Landing, New York, until 1941. Since that year he has been located in Bethpage, Nassau County. Here he built the first unit of his present plant and has carried on a steadily growing business in poultry, eggs, turkeys and the like. Part of his operations is a twenty-three thousand egg capacity turkey incubator together with all necessary modern equipment. Mr. Zorn is president of the Long Island Broiler Growers Cooperative, Incorpor- ated, and is a member and committeeman of the Nassau County Farm Bureau. He worships in the Catholic faith, and is identified with civic and philan- thropic projects. For recreation he fishes, hunts and does some boating.
On January 6, 1929, Peter Zorn married Margaret Junge, of Brooklyn, New York, and they are the parents of two children: I. Joseph P., born July 17, 1930. 2. Helen Margaret, born July 17, 1941.
NAOMI (WILLIAMS) GRIFFITHS-For many years a resident of Amityville, and a prominent club- woman of this city, Naomi (Williams) Griffiths has been active in the affairs of Amityville and the sur- rounding region.
Mrs. Griffiths was born January 19, 1885, at Amity- ville, New York, daughter of Gilbert Platt and Amelia L.I .- 11
(Pearsall) Williams. Her father was a prominent farmer of Long Island.
Naomi (Williams) Griffiths received her education at the Amityville High School and at Pratt Institute. stitute.
Mrs. Griffiths plays an active role in her commun- ity as a member of the Amityville Women's Club. In religious affiliation she is an Episcopalian, and attends St. Mary's Episcopal Church of Amityville.
On June 14, 1911 at Amityville, New York, Naomi Williams married Alfred Starr Griffiths, son of Millard Fillmore and Carrie (Starr) Griffiths. Mr. Griffiths is now retired, and is a member of the board of directors of the Patterson Brothers Hardware Com- pany, of 15 Park Row in New York City, the firm with which he was formerly actively associated. Alfred Starr and Naomi (Williams) Griffiths became the parents of the following children: 1. Gilbert Williams, who was born February 29, 1917. 2. Millard Fillmore, who was born May 25, 1922.
JOHN FELDIS-Almost within sight of the towers of Manhattan Island, millions of flowers grow under glass in the Hempstead area of Nassau County, where the florist industry, supported by the metropoli- tan market, has assumed large proportions. One of the principal floral concerns is that which has been known since 1920 by the name of Feldis, which stands high in that business
The late Joseph Feldis, who was born in Alsace- Lorraine in 1868 and came to the United States in 1892, was employed as superintendent on various pri- vate estates on the North Shore of Long Island for some years before he established his own greenhouses and business in Hempstead. Joseph Feldis married Antonie Pfister, a native of Germany, and they were the parents of John Feldis, who was born at Great Neck on June 9, 1909. After attending the public schools of Hempstead and the Hempstead high school, from which he graduated with the class of 1927, John Feldis attended Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, for one year, taking a course in horticulture, be- fore joining his father in the management of the florist business which by this time was well-established in Hempstead.
After the death of Joseph Feldis on February 9, 1942, John Feldis took over the sole management of the business, and has conducted it with increasing suc- cess to the present time. Employing eight people, this business, with approximately fifteen thousand square feet of glass, has its office, showroom and greenhouses located at 255 South Franklin Street in Hempstead. Mr. Feldis is a member of the New York Florist Club.
A Roman Catholic in religion, Mr. Feldis is a com- municant of the Church of Our Lady of Loretta in Hempstead, and a member of the Catholic fraternal order, the Knights of Columbus. In politics he is a Republican.
On December 27, 1937, John Feldis married Dorothy Pilger of Baldwin, Long Island, daughter of Bertha (Busch) Pilger. Of this marriage there are two chil- dren: 1. John, Jr., who was born on January 12, 1939. 2. Dorothy Ann, born on April 30, 1941.
EDWARD C. SPRAGUE-Member of a family which dates back to the early days of the settlement of Long Island, Edward C. Sprague is head of the
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monument firm of Parsons and Sprague at Hempstead and president of the board of trustees of Greenfield Cemetery, operated by the Town of Hempstead.
Mr. Sprague was born in Hempstead on August 30, 1889, the son of Benjamin A. and Edith (Smith) Sprague. His father, born in Hempstead in 1854, was superintendent of Greenfield Cemetery for sixteen years. He died on July 12, 1927. Edith Smith Sprague was born in Hempstead in 1857 and died in 1895.
Edward C. Sprague was educated in Hempstead's elementary and high schools. For several years he worked for Cooper and Powell, Hempstead grocery concern, and for two years he was with the meat market of Bedell and Pray, also in that town. For another two years he worked for William Plyer, Hempstead hardware merchant, and for a year and one-half afterward was in the employ of Cyril Mar- shall, the Village Engineer.
In 1910, Mr. Sprague went to work in the monument yards and shop of his uncle, F. C. Parson, who had founded the business prior to 1900. Mr. Sprague had been with his uncle three years when the founder died. Mr. Sprague purchased the business and has continued it since under its present name of Parsons and Sprague. The yards and office are located on Nassau Road op- posite the Greenfield Cemetery in Hempstead. Mr. Sprague has been president of the board of trustees of the town-operated cemetery since 1927. He is a member of the Hempstead Lodge, No. 1485, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks; Hempstead Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Hemp- stead Golf Club. He is a Republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Sprague married Catherine McKinnon, daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm McKinnon of East Meadow, New York, on September 15, 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Sprague are the parents of three sons: Edward C., born in 1922; Malcolm McKinnon, born in 1926, and Bruce A., born in 1930. Young Edward C. Sprague, who served in the United States Army in World War II and for a time was stationed in Germany, became a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacks- burg after the war, graduating in 1948. He was in the Army nearly two and a half years. Malcolm McKinnon Sprague was also in the Army in World War II, serving twenty-six months. He was in both the European and Pacific Theaters of War and was stationed in both Germany and Japan before he was returned home for his discharge. He studied at Vir- ginia Polytechnic Institute and is now associated with his father in the monument business. Mr. Sprague's youngest son, Bruce, attended the Hempstead High School.
STEVE W. STEPNOSKI-A leader in the trans- portation business on Long Island, Steve W. Step- noski centers his activities in the community of Peconic.
Mr. Stepnoski was born June 4, 1908, in Berwick, Pennsylvania, son of Bert W. Stepnoski, a farmer.
Steve W. Stepnoski attended grammar school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where his family took up their residence while he was still very young. Later they moved to the town of Southold, Long Island. At the age of six years, Steve W. Stepnoski completed his studies in the Peconic District School. Early in his career he was engaged in active work on the home farm. Then, in 1932, he established his own truck- ing business in Peconic. This enterprise has de-
veloped from a relatively unimportant stage to one in which the company operates a fleet of modern freight trucks. This fleet represents a remarkable manifestation of Mr. Stepnoski's success, inasmuch as originally the firm boasted only one used truck. A large part of the work of the Stepnoski Company is to transport produce and fertilizer, although many other items are included among those handled by this enterprise.
In addition to his work in his own company, Mr. Stepnoski has concerned himself extensively with a number of social developments which have figured prominently in the life of his times, as well as in the general affairs of the trucking business. He is a member of the board of directors of the Nassau and Suffolk Counties Truck Owners Association, also a member of the Roman Catholic Church at Cutch- ogue.
Steve W. Stepnoski married, June 5, 1941, at Cutchogue, Long Island, New York, Victoria Bagen- ski, who was also born in Cutchogue, daughter of Conrad Bagenski. The Stepnoskis became the par- ents of one child, a daughter, Doris Ann Stepnoski, born July 5, 1946, at Long Island Hospital, Green- port, Long Island.
NORMAN C. GODFREY-Although the areas of Long Island adjacent to the metropolitan city of New York have largely been laid out as residential suburbs of that city, the Island remains one of the most intensively cultivated farm regions of the United States, its exceptionally rich soil being especially adapted to the growth of a wide variety of vegetables of prime quality. Farm machinery and agricultural im- plements are therefore important factors in Long Island economy, a fact which Norman C. Godfrey of Bethpage has made the foundation of a highly success- ful business.
Mr. Godfrey was born on May 1I, 1886, at Snow Hill in the State of Maryland, where he received his early education in the public schools. Choice or chance directed him to the farm machinery business, his first employment being in the capacity of a salesman for the J. S. Woodhouse Company of New York City. This association continued for thirteen years.
Mr. Godfrey's first independent business venture was as a partner in the Hicksville Implement Com- pany, located at Hicksville in Nassau County, and dealing in farm implements. After four years of this business association, Mr. Godfrey, in 1926, went into the same business individually under the name of the Godfrey Farm Supply Company, located at the village of Central Park, which is now known as Beth- page. During the twenty years since this company was founded, it has had a record of unbroken success.
Mr. Godfrey has also become a factor in the banking world of Long Island, and is a director of the Long Island National Bank of Hicksville. He is a member of Manneto Lodge of Hicksville, of the Free and Ac- cepted Masons. He attends the Community Church, and in politics is affiliated with the Republican party. His hobby is fishing.
On June 12, 1913, Norman C. Godfrey was married to Lena J. Toadvin of Salisbury, Maryland, a daughter of Theodore and Anna (Hall) Toadvin. Of this marriage there is one child, a son, Howard Charles, who was born on June 25, 1915. During World War II he served in the United States Army with the rank of sergeant, seeing action overseas in the Euro- pean Theater of Operations.
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JOSEPH FRANCIS BELLAMENTE-Youthful, well versed in the law, energetic in civic and political affairs, possessed of initiative and organizing ability and widely popular, Joseph Francis Bellamente is one of the younger generation at the Nassau County bar who is clearly indicated as a coming leader in professional and public affairs on Long Island.
Mr. Bellamente's father, Anthony Bellamente, is a butcher, and has been in business at the one loca- tion in the city of New York for upward of forty- seven years. He married the former Emma Valenti, and of this union Joseph Francis Bellamente was born at New York on May 18, 1913. He was brought to Long Island as a boy, and attended first the Hempstead High School, from which after two years he transferred to the Sewanhaka High School, from which he graduated with the class of June, 1932. Dur- ing his high school days his decision was made to become a medical doctor, and to this end he con- tinued his studies, first at St. John's University, Col- lege of Arts and Sciences, from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Science in June of 1936, and subsequently changed to law and attended the School of Law of the same university, where the degree of Bachelor of Laws was conferred on him in June of 1940. In the following year he did postgraduate work in New York City, studying the subject of insurance brokerage.
Mr. Bellamente's first employment, while he was still in high school, was as assistant manager of a theater, and in this he continued from 1929 to 1933 at Floral Park. In June, 1937, he became a resident of New Hyde Park, where in 1941 he established himself in the general practice of the law. Promptly enlisting his initiative and energies in civic and poli- tical affairs, he was one of the organizers and became a charter member of the Lions Club of New Hyde Park, which was inaugurated on March 4, 1944. During the second World War he was chairman of the Lions Club for war bond drives, receiving two citations for meritorious service in this connection; also a member of the New York State Guard, 4th Regiment, Jamaica, New York. He served as chairman for the first and second drives to raise clothing for overseas relief. Civic and political activities were not new to Mr. Bellamente when he came to New Hyde Park. While he was a resident of Floral Park he had joined in organizing the Volunteer Exempt Firemen's Associa- tion of that village, and was a member of the Floral Park fire department, remaining a charter member of that group. During his Floral Park days he also helped to organize the Republican Recruits. One of his most recent services has been his activity as a member of the Emergency Food Collection Or- ganization for overseas relief in the New Hyde Park postal district and chairman of the 1947 Boy Scout financial drive (campaign fund). He is now committeeman for the forty-seventh election district. Another of his interests is the work of the Italian- American Mutual Aid Society, in which he holds office. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and charter member of the banking sec- tion of the New York State Bar Association and a member of Nassau County Bar Association.
A Roman Catholic in religion, Mr. Bellamente is an attendant at the Holy Ghost Church of that de- nomination in New Hyde Park, and active in its good works. He is also a member of the Knights of Col- umbus. Among his civic services, he is at this time acting as the secretary of the New Hyde Park Busi- ness Improvement Committee.
At Floral Park, Nassau County, on June 25, 1939, Joseph Francis Bellamente was married to Frances Kowalski, who is a daughter of Frank and Louise Kowalski. This marriage has been blessed by three children, namely: I. Joseph Francis, Jr., who was born on December 25, 1942. 2. Carolyn Frances, born on May 3, 1945. 3. Marilyn, born on December 9, 1946.
JOHN OAKEY McKNIGHT-The son of a man distinguished both as an attorney and as a public official, John Oakey McKnight followed his father in the choice of a profession, and has emulated him in public service. In his younger middle years he stands among the leading practitioners at the bar of Nassau County, is among the most active men in his community in patriotic and civic works, and has been honored by his fellow-citizens by selection for several responsible posts in official life.
A native of Bayside, where he was born on April I, 1904, Mr. McKnight is a son of Henry Stewart and Frances (Oakey) McKnight. Harvey Stewart Mc- Knight, an attorney of outstanding ability, served in the assembly of the New York State Legislature, as a justice of the peace in Flushing, and as county attorney for Nassau County, an office to which he was first appointed in 1917 and held, through suc- cessive appointment, through 1934. He is still active in the practice of the law, and a noted personage among the older generation of lawyers on Long Island.
John Oakey McKnight, after graduation from the Flushing High School, enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts with the class of 1926. From his boyhood days his ambition had been set upon a legal career, and from Yale he went to the George Washington Law School at Washington, D. C., where he earned his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1929. For six months following his graduation he held a clerkship in the office of the Nassau County attorney and also served as a clerk in his father's firm, McKnight and Dodge, at Great Neck. Ad- mitted to the bar in December, 1930, he became a member of this firm, which later became McKnight and McKnight, by which name it is still known. The offices of the firm are at 1501 Franklin Avenue in Mineola, the county seat of Nassau County.
Since 1926 John Oakey McKnight has been asso- ciated with the county attorney's office of Nassau County, and since 1938 has been a deputy county attorney. In 1940 he was elected police justice of the Village of East Hills, and since 1943 he has been acting police justice of North Hills. He is also counsel for the village of Roslyn Harbor. The firm of McKnight and McKnight serves as counsel for the village of East Hills.
During the second World War Mr. McKnight as- sumed many duties in connection with the national war effort. He served as section chairman of the war fund for the American Red Cross, and received a citation for his war work from that organization. He was also a member at large of the Roslyn Red Cross. He was a member of the Civilian Defense Committee of East Hills, and he was active as an airplane spotter, for which he received a citation from the United States Army during the war.
Mr. McKnight is a life member of the County Bar Association, and also holds membership in the New York Magistrates Association. He is a charter mem- ber and a former president of the Kiwanis Club of
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Roslyn, and he serves as counsel for the Neighbor- hood Association of that village. Active in political life, he holds the post of president of the Roslyn Re- publican Club. He is affiliated with the Paumanok Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons, with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Great Neck, and with Phi Delta Phi, a fraternity of lawyers. He is a member of Trinity Church of Roslyn, in which he is a vestryman, and is an associate of the Girl Scouts of America. His wife and children are communicants of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church of Roslyn.
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