NUMC plaque honors Nelson Finkelman

The Nassau University Medical Center immortalized longtime East Meadow firefighter Nelson Finkelman on Sept. 28, hanging a plaque in his memory inside of the hospital’s Burn Center, a facility he helped make possible through years of fundraising.

Finkelman, who died in Oct. 2013 at 83, was a 56-year-veteran of the East Meadow Fire Department. A U.S. Navy veteran and a member of Ladder Company 2 Station 3, on Newbridge Road, Finkelman rose to the rank of captain in 1963, and became chief of the department in 1967. He was a secretary to the Board of Fire Commissioners for 25 years, a delegate of the 6th Nassau County Fire Battalion, and worked on numerous committees.

He was also a county fire marshal supervisor, and the chief fire instructor at the Nassau County Fire Service Academy. In the early ’90s, he became a board member for the Nassau County Firefighter’s Burn Center Foundation, where he raised funds for the burn unit.

The plaque, which was presented by the 6th Nassau County Battalion District, reads: “In recognition of his tireless effort and dedication to the Nassau County Burn Center Foundation.”

After the burn unit’s inception, Finkelman worked to maintain financial support to keep it going, said John O’Brien Sr., an EMFD volunteer, in an article posted on eastmeadowfd.com. “For Nelson, it was a ‘labor of love,’ as he once stated in 2008 while receiving top honors at the annual Nassau County Museum Awards Night,” O’Brien said.

Finkelman is survived by his wife of 62 years, Gloria, daughters Amy, Lori and Jodi, and son Michael, who is the EMFD’s chairman of the board of commissioners.

“One year after his sudden passing,” O’Brien said, “a bronze plaque would be unveiled forever, remembering the work of a man who gave so much of himself, asking little in return.