Today marks one year since the loss of a local mainstay, a community pillar—Mr. Mineola. John DaVanzo, 92, is remembered as a loving father and tireless public servant. His limitless generosity still affects the village and its residents today.
“I was blessed with a great family, a long and great life and have had a great place to live,” he said at his 90th birthday celebration in 2011.
While DaVanzo lived a long, happy and fulfilled life, his loss still hits home.
“It’s been difficult,” his daughter Judy said. “I miss him.”
DaVanzo collected quite a few things over the years, from pictures with future presidents to personal gifts from family and friends. Even one year after his passing, John is still giving.
“A lot of the [John’s] things were pictures of his friends and people that I knew,” Judy stated. “So I sorted them all out and sent them to those people because I think that’s what my father would have wanted.”
Quite a few events came up without John for the first time in decades in Mineola. He attended the village pool opening every year, which he helped open in 1961.
The community hotspot was renamed with his moniker in 2007. The Mineola Junior Fire Department recently hosted their annual pasta dinner, another event DaVanzo appreciated.
“Being around Mineola, things that come up, I just feel that he should be here,” Judy said, fighting back tears. “It’s hard to believe he’s even gone.”
A 1939 Mineola High School graduate, DaVanzo was a stellar football, basketball and baseball player and track star. He married his high school sweetheart Pauline and attended Hofstra University.
DaVanzo’s reach exceeded past Mineola, serving in World War II as a radioman on the USS Glennon DD-620. He served in the Navy from Sept. 21, 1943 to Jan. 7, 1946.
A D-Day survivor, DaVanzo was aboard the USS Glennon when it struck a mine off the coast of Normandy two days after D-Day. The ship sank on June 9, 1944.
“I had to destroy all information and codes before I evacuated the ship to prevent the enemy from gathering information from the ship,” he said in 2011 after being honored as a Hometown Hero by the Town of North Hempstead.
Trustee Dennis Walsh recalled hearing of DaVanzo’s legend when he was in high school. Mineola Boulevard was temporarily renamed to honor DaVanzo when Walsh was a youngster.
“[DaVanzo] owned a gas station on the corner of Grant [Avenue] and Mineola Boulevard,” Walsh said. Walsh drove DaVanzo to and from many events leading up to his passing. “The station was galled Big Three. People thought it meant the three DaVanzo brothers. But it actually meant the Big Three in World War II, Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and [Joseph] Stalin.”
DaVanzo was a true public presence, attending most Mineola Village Board meetings, sitting third row in the far right seat.
“He is sorely missed,” Mayor Scott Strauss said. “Not only here in the community center or Village Hall and his desk…he’s missed everywhere.”
DaVanzo served as captain for the Mineola Fire Department from 1953-55. He would later become a delegate to the Firemen Association of the State of New York, southern New York and the Nassau County Fireman’s Association.
“He was always on the go,” Judy said. “But he was always there for us.”
DaVanzo served as a village trustee from 1955 to 1965 and 2005 to 2007, deputy mayor for five years from 1955-1960, North Hempstead town councilman from 1965-1974 and town clerk from 1974-1991.
DaVanzo was named the National Volunteer Firefighter of the Year in 2004. He was honored as New York State’s Clerk of the Year in 1986 and inducted into the New York State Veterans Hall of Fame in 2011.
“[John’s] smile, his hearty handshake…everything about him…I’m still at a loss,” Strauss said. “I hate it when people say ‘nobody is irreplaceable.’ There will never be another John DaVanzo.”
