USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 69
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 69
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States and to Long Island, to become resident physi- cian at the Jamaica . General Hospital in Jamaica, borough of Queens, New York City. It was in the following year that he took up his residence on Shelter Island and established his practice there. Locally known as the chief surgeon of the Eastern Long Island Hospital at Greenport and as surgeon at the Southampton Hospital, Dr. Currie's fame is far from being confined to his adopted community, for he has the reputation of being one of the ablest surgeons in the entire state of New York. He holds member- ships in the American Medical Association and in the Suffolk County Medical Society.
At Shelter Island in 1931 Donald F. Currie was married to Evelyn Parks, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Parks, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They have one child, Donald James, who was born at South- ampton, Suffolk County, in 1934.
JOHN C. STARK-During the thirty-six years of his business career, since the day he first went to work, John C. Stark has had but one employer, the Suffolk County National Bank at Riverhead. Of this institu- tion, in which his first rank was that of a clerk, he has now for several years been the president. Thus it is seen that steadiness of aim in life, industrious service and faithful performance of duties whether humble or important, are still good stepping-stones to success and eminence.
John C. Stark was born at Northport in Suffolk County on August 2, 1895. He is a brother of Walter E. Stark (q.v.) and of William C. Stark (q.v.). He attended public grade and high schools at Riverhead, but he was still a lad of only fifteen years when he took his first clerical job with the Suffolk County National Bank. Rising through various grades, he was made cashier and elected to a seat on the board of directors of the bank in 1931. In 1939 he was chosen president, and this position of responsibility he con- tinues to fill to the present time.
During World War I, John C. Stark served in the United States Army, holding the rank of sergeant in Company A of the 305th Infantry, a part of the 77th Division. With this outfit Mr. Stark took part in three of the major engagements in which the Ameri- can Expeditionary Forces were involved in France. During World War II Mr. Stark organized and became commander of the Second Separate Battalion of the New York Guard, holding a commission as a major and serving from August, 1942, to April, 1946. He is a member of the American Legion.
A Roman Catholic in religion, Mr. Stark is a member of the national fraternal order of men of that faith, the Knights of Columbus. He is a Republican in politics and belongs to the National Republican Club, of New York City. He is a member of the New York State Bankers Association, and served on the agricultural committee of that organization in the years 1943 and 1944. In local business and civic affairs he participates particularly as an active mem- ber of the Riverhead Rotary Club. His recreations are hunting and fishing.
On July 12, 1921, John C. Stark married Mary E. Gaynor of Olean, New York, a daughter of Michael and Ellen Gaynor. The wedding took place at Olean. Of this marriage the children are: I. Thomas M., who was born at Riverhead, Suffolk County, New York, on February 13, 1925. After graduating from the Riverhead High School he attended Holy Cross College at Worcester, Massachusetts, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1945. During World War II he enrolled in the Reserve
HenryJa Collio
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Officers' Training Corps while at college, and subse- quently entered the United States Navy with the rank of ensign, in March, 1945. He is now studying law at Harvard Law School. 2. Richard J., who was born at Riverhead on November 2, 1926. He gradu- ated from the Riverhead High School with the class of 1944, and in July of the same year enrolled in the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Nassau County. After serving for three months at sea on convoy duty, he returned to the academy as a cadet midshipman, and graduated therefrom in December, 1946, with the rank of ensign, United States Naval Reserve. He is now on active duty with the Atlantic Fleet, United States Navy. 3. William E., who was born at Riverhead on June 1, 1927. In the family tradition he graduated from the Riverhead High School in 1946, and soon after graduation received an appointment to a United States Merchant Marine Academy located in the state of Mississippi. In 1947 he served his sea training as a cadet midshipman. 4. Maureen E., who was born at Riverhead in October, 1933, and is now attending the Sacred Heart Academy at Sag Harbor.
ELIAS H. AVRAM-Brought to the United States as a boy sixteen years of age, Elias H. Avram accom- plished the remarkable feat of mastering the English language and the principles of American law, being admitted to the bar and acquiring the degree of Bachelor of Laws in about five years after his arrival. The law was clearly his vocation, and the same intellectual keenness which marked his rapid progress in those early years has made and kept him a leader in that profession and an outstanding criminal lawyer in particular.
Mr. Avram was born at Buzeu in Romania on Jan- uary 1, 1889. All other members of the family had come to the United States before he came here with his mother. His father was a flour mill engineer who died and is buried in Perrineville, New Jersey. Mr. Avram's mother is also deceased and is interred in New York City. Within a month after his arrival in this county the young Elias H. Avram secured a clerkship with the law firm of Keiley and Haviland in the city of New York. It has been said that he mastered the English language literally immediately. He took the examinations given by the board of regents of the University of the State of New York and entered the law school of New York University in New York City, from which he received his Bache- lor of Laws degree in June, 1910. He had, however, been admitted to the New York State bar in the first Appelate Department, in October, 1909.
Mr. Avram practiced the law in the city of New York with great success for many years before trans- ferring his practice to Riverhead in Suffolk County on June 15, 1937. Here he continues in general prac- tice, and is known throughout legal circles on Long Island as an especially able and outstanding attorney in criminal law. He is a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association.
Mr. Avram holds membership in the Suffolk County Republican Club, the Riverhead Republican Club and the Riverhead Yacht Club. His favorite recreations are fishing and sailing, and he is the owner of a $6,500 yacht.
At Riverhead, Suffolk County, New York, on July 30, 1938, Elias H. Avram married Florence Pennucci, of Locust Valley, Nassau County. Mrs. Avram had served as Mr. Avram's secretary for fourteen years before their marriage. There are three children, all born at Riverhead: I. Gail. 2. Robert. 3. Nancy.
HENRY JOHN ALDERTON COLLINS-A master of legal principles and procedure, an able ad- ministrator, and a public servant with a long and im- peccable record, the Hon. Henry John Alderton Col- lins, county judge of the County of Nassau, ranks without dissent among the foremost citizens of Long Island.
Judge Collins has been a resident of Seaford, for more than forty-five years. He is a son of Henry Alderton and Sarah Martin Collins, his father having been engaged in real estate and construc- tion operations with offices in New York City. Judge Collins was born on April 23, 1895, at Hoboken, New Jersey, where his parents lived for about one year. He resides in the home purchased by his father at Seaford, where his grandfather Henry A. Collins settled and where his father resided, and he and his children now reside, making four generations in the one homestead. After beginning his education in the public schools of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, the young Henry John Alderton Collins attended preparatory school at Culver, In- diana, where he was in the class of 1914. From Culver he went to Dartmouth College at Hanover, New Hampshire, from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts as of the class of 1918, having served in World War I. With his ambition set upon a career in the law, he enrolled in the Law School of Columbia University in New York City, where he received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1923.
Upon being admitted to the bar, Mr. Collins en- tered the law offices of the Hon. Samuel Seabury in New York. This was in 1923, and Mr. Collins was accepted as a junior member of the staff of this eminent jurist on the recommendation of the Hon. Harlan Fiske Stone, at that time Dean of the Col- umbia University School of Law, and later Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court until his death in 1946. Mr. Collins was associated in the general practice of the law with Judge Seabury for a period of more than thirteen years, from 1923 until some time in 1937, and during this time he participated in inany important trials. He was an assistant counsel in the investigation of the magistrates' courts of the city of New York, conducted under an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First De- partment, in New York City, and he was an associate counsel in the investigation of the office of the dis- trict attorney of New York County under the com- mission given Judge Samuel Seabury for that pur- pose by the Governor of the state of New York.
Mr. Collins was again an associate counsel of Judge Seabury when the latter was counsel to the joint legislative committee in the general investiga- tion of the municipal government of the city of New York. The ability, acumen and cooperativeness mani- fested by Mr. Collins in these cases led to his appoint- ment as a special assistant attorney-general on the staff of Hiram Todd in the investigation of the Druck- man murder case in Brooklyn, and in the subsequent trial which resulted in the conviction of the three defendants in that case.
Judge Seabury, recognizing that Mr. Collins pos- sessed talents not only in the field of criminal law but also in the area of constitutional law, drafted him as an assistant in the preparation of a report on the charter and governmental structure of the city of New York. Mr. Collins was also an active member of the Nassau County Commission on Governmental Revision, which was appointed in December, 1934, and was also known as the Nassau County Charter
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Commission. It is fair to say that Mr. Collins' con- tributions to the work of this commission were of exceptional value. He served on various committees and made a particular impression on the work of the commission as chairman of the committee which drafted the District Court Act establishing the dis- trict courts of Nassau County. Mr. Collins was also particularly effective in forwarding the deliberations and decisions of the educational committee of the charter commission.
With the new Nassau County Charter adopted, Mr. Collins was appointed special deputy county at- torney to prepare the legal framework for the new county government and the district courts. This work absorbed his attention from September through De- cember of 1937, the new charter coming into effect on January 1, 1938. Under Mr. Collins' direction as special deputy county attorney the procedures were established for such intricate matters as the transfer of functions of government from the towns, cities and villages, including matters of health, welfare, and so forth; and the new procedures to be followed by the board of supervisors, as well as by the new dis- trict courts, were planned in detail.
When the new charter form of government for Nassau County was inaugurated, the Hon. J. Russel Sprague appointed Mr. Collins first deputy county executive, and this position he held from January 1938 to January 1943. During this period Mr. Collins, learnedly interpreting the pertinent state laws and provisions of the constitution of the state of New York, gave invaluable service in establishing the form and character of the new charter government of Nassau County.
On January 20, 1943, upon the recommendation of the Hon. J. Russel Sprague, Henry John Alderton Collins was appointed by his Excellency Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of the State of New York, to the position of county judge of the County of Nassau. Since his elevation to the bench, Judge Collins has presided as judge of the children's court, and is the presiding judge of the youth part of the county court, the rules concerning which he promulgated, and these rules have guided the procedures of that part since September 1, 1943. Judge Collins has also presided during civil litigation in the county court.
At the outbreak of the first World War in 1917, Henry John Alderton Collins, having completed two and a half years of his college studies, enlisted in the armed forces. He attended the first officer's train- ing camp at Plattsburg, New York, from which he was commissioned a second lieutenant of field artil- lery. Going overseas with the 77th Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, he saw much active service during the campaigns in France, and earned promotions from second to first lieutenant, and from first lieutenant to captain of field artillery. A few weeks prior to the armistice in November, 1918, Cap- tain Collins was transferred from the 77th Division to the chief of staff section at headquarters of the First Army in France, of which General Hugh A. Drum was commanding officer. After his honorable dis- charge from the service, he resumed his education. He is a charter member of the American Legion Post of Seaford, Nassau County.
For more than nine years prior to 1937, Judge Collins was a member of the board of directors of the Seaford National Bank. a position which he resigned prior to accepting appointment as first deputy county executive. He is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association. A Republican in politics, he be-
longs to the Seaford Republican Club. The Dart- mouth College Alumni Association of Long Island is one of his great interests, and he served as its president in 1941. He is the recipient of an "Award of Merit" given by this association for service and contributions to municipal government. He has long been interested in the Boy Scouts of America, is an executive board member-at-large in the Nassau County council of that organization, and was chair- man of general fund campaigns in 1946. He has also given much time to the work of the American Red Cross, is chairman of the home service com- mittee of Nassau County, and a member of the board of directors of the county chapter. Before he ascended the bench, Judge Collins was a member of the Sea- ford Chamber of Commerce, served for a time as its president and also as a governor for two years. He is also an active and interested member of the Long Island Horticultural Society and is trustee of the Nassau County Historical and Genealogical Society.
Judge Collins is a charter member of Wantagh Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons. Of this lodge he is a past master, and in 1940 he was ap- pointed district deputy grand master of Masons in Nassau County. He also belongs to the Freeport Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In religion Judge Collins and his family are Episcopalians, and members of St. Michaels and All Angels Church of that denomination at Seaford. He is a vestryman of that church.
His hobby is the growing of broad-leaved ever- greens, and he has collected and successfully grown the species and hybrids of many fine rhododendrons and azeleas.
In 1923 Henry John Alderton Collins was married to Agnes Hunter Boyd, daughter of John Boyd and Elizabeth Hunter Boyd. Of this marriage there are three children: I. Sally. 2. Betty. 3. Nancy.
JOHN CLARK TOAZ-During his energetic pro- fessional career in Huntington, one of Long Island's historic communities, John Clark Toaz has dis- tinguished himself not only in his private law prac- tice but as a public official. In practice since 1929, Mr: Toaz in 1933 commenced practice of law in Huntington and that year was elected justice of the peace of Huntington, a post he filled through 1937. At the same time he has been identified prominently with the Bank of Huntington and Trust Company and the Huntington Hospital, interested keenly in the progress and welfare of his community.
John Clark Toaz was born on September 10, 1904, at Utica, New York, a son of Robert Kennedy and Mary (Clark) Toaz. When he was under two years old, his family moved to Huntington, where his father was prominent in the school system. Before his deathı on April 16, 1938, the elder Mr. Toaz had served as head and superintendent of schools, Union Free School District No. 3 in Huntington for twenty- seven years. Mr. Toaz' parents were natives of upper New York State. His father originally from Rochester, and his mother from Waterloo. John Clark Toaz received his early education in Huntington and was graduated from Huntington High School, class of 1921. He enrolled at Hamilton College where he was awarded his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1925, and received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1928 from Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the New York State bar the following year. Until 1933, when he established an office for the general
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practice of law in Huntington, he was associated with the New York City firm of Winthrop, Stim- son, Putnam and Roberts. He was elected justice of the peace of the town of Huntington in 1933. He is now the senior member of the firm of Toaz, Buck & Root.
Interested in the growth and prosperity of his com- munity, Mr. Toaz has been long active in community affairs. He is a director of the Bank of Huntington and of the Huntington Hospital. In addition he is a former president of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce. A member of the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington, Mr. Toaz also serves as a trustee. His brother, Robert Dunlop Toaz, also a member of the same church, served as a chaplain's assistant in the Seventy-Seventh Division of the Army of the United States in the Pacific Theater of War, during World War II.
On June 16, 1933, Mr. Toaz married Jocelyn Brock Velsor, daughter of Howard Smith and Mabel (Brock) Velsor, of Huntington. They are the parents of two daughters: 1. Alice, born July 16, 1934. 2. Elinor, born November 16, 1939.
A. WILLIAM OLSON, M.D., F. A. C. S .- A phy- sician and surgeon whose abilities and skill were highly valued in the hospitals of Kings County, and brought promotion in the United States Army to which they were dedicated during World War II, Dr. A. William Olson has returned to his native village of Greenport in Suffolk County, and there, in one of Long Island's loveliest areas, has taken up his resi- dence and resumed the private practice which he will- ingly interrupted at the call to serve the country in war time. Dr. Olson's parents, John and Sophie (Hanson) Olson, are both natives of Sweden who came to Greenport as young people, and were married in 1898. John Olson, with the blood of generations of Scandinavian sea-farers in his veins, was a yacht cap- tain. To him and Sophie (Hanson) Olson, the son whom they named A. William was born at Greenport on October 5, 1903. Early in life he fixed his ambition on a career in medicine, and, after attending the pub- lic school of Greenport and graduating from Greenport High School with the class of 1921, he entered Syra- cuse University at Syracuse, New York, where he took both his premedical and his medical courses, leading to the attainment of the coveted Doctor of Medicine degree in 1929. He has also been made a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
In that same year the young doctor became an in- tern at the Brooklyn Hospital in the Borough of Brooklyn, New York City, where he remained until 1931. From the latter year until 1942 he served on the surgical staff of the Brooklyn Hospital and prac- ticed surgery in that Borough. From 1931 through 1938 he was also on the surgical staff of the King's County Hospital.
The entrance of the United States into the second World War led Dr. Olson to put aside his private practice and growing reputation in Brooklyn medical and surgical circles, and on September 15, 1942, he entered the United States Army Medical Corps and was assigned to the 79th General Hospital with the rank of captain. He also served in France. At the time of his discharge from the service, Dr. Olson held the rank of lieutenant colonel and was chief of the surgical service of the 79th General Hospital. Al- ready, in January of 1946, he had resumed his pro-
fessional career and had established his residence and office in his native Greenport.
Dr. Olson holds memberships in the Suffolk County Medical Society, the New York State Medical So- ciety and the American Medical Association. He is also a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Since his college days he has been affiliated with the Sigma Phi Epsilon and Nu Sigma Nu fraternities. He is a member of the American Legion. In religion he is of the Presbyterian faith. Sports of all kinds are his hobby.
At Brooklyn, New York, on September 14, 1933, A. William Olson married Marion Hayes of Sauger- ties, Ulster County, New York. Mrs. Olson holds the degree of R. N. and is a graduate of the Brooklyn Hospital Training School for Nurses. She is a daugh- ter of the late Mr. and the present Mrs. John Hayes of Saugerties. To A. William and Marion (Hayes) Olson, two children have been born: 1. Albert William Junior, at Brooklyn, New York, in December, 1934. 2. Helen Hayes, at Brooklyn also, on April 6, 1938.
FREDERICK H. MULLER-Highly esteemed as a lawyer by his colleagues at the bar and by his num- erous clients, Frederick H. Muller is even better known to the general public of Center Moriches, Suf- folk County, as one of the younger leaders in the political affairs and the business and civic progress of that village.
Mr. Muller is a son of John and Anna (Brockman) Muller. John Muller took up his residence in Center Moriches in the year 1919, and has remained there, a prosperous farmer in an area that is still partly agri- cultural. The son of John and Anna (Brockman) Muller whom they called Frederick H., was born in the Borough of Brooklyn in New York City, on Au- gust 7, 1910. Thus he was still a youngster when the family moved to Center Moriches, and after attending public grade school at Moriches, he entered the Center Moriches high school, from which he graduated with the class of 1926. Following this, he attended Al- fred University for three years before entering the Columbia University Law School to prepare himself for the career at the bar upon which his ambition was fixed. From that law school he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1933, and the following year he was admitted to the bar of the State of New York.
Mr. Muller established his law office in the village of Center Moriches soon after his admission to the bar, and there he has continued in general practice to the present time, enjoying a lucrative business with many important clients. He has also become a fac- tor in banking in that part of Suffolk County, and is a member of the board of directors of the Center Moriches Bank.
Mr. Muller belongs to the Suffolk County Bar As- sociation, and to the Center Moriches Rotary Club, of which he is a past president. His political beliefs are indicated by the fact that he was a charter member of the Suffolk County Republican Club. He is a Pres- byterian in religion. His fraternal affiliation is with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is fond of gardening as a recreation.
In June, 1936, Frederick H. Muller was married at Center Moriches to Astelle Reeve, a daughter of the late Arthur Reeve and his wife, the former Arletta Ross, both of whom were natives of Suffolk County. Of this marriage there are four children, all of whom
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have been born at Center Moriches: I. Frederick Arthur, in December, 1937. 2. John Bartlett, in No- vember 1940. 3. Robert Bruce, in October, 1944, and Dorothy Mae, born March 29, 1947.
J. ALFRED VALENTINE-The vision of the real estate developer and the practical backing of the insurance expert and the banker have been equally essential in the extraordinary development which has transformed the once backward areas of Long Island adjacent to Greater New York, into a region of beautiful, thriving suburban towns and villages, where the workers in the big city can truly enjoy living, each under his own "vine and fig-tree," blessed by air and sunlight and room for the children to play in happiness and safety. J. Alfred Valentine, a native of that part of Long Island, has made his triple contribution to this development, as a realtor, as an insurance man and as a banker.
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