Remembering a Rockaway Beach midshipman

Justin Zemser, 20, of Rockaway Beach, was one of eight people who died in the Amtrak train derailment near Philadelphia on May 12.

A sophomore at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Zemser was heading home to visit his parents on Tuesday when the train went off the tracks. Officials said that the train was traveling at 106 mph, more than twice the speed limit at that portion of the tracks where the train was at that time.

Zemser was a member of the Jewish Midshipman Club and the Marine Corps’ Semper Fi society. He played football and was a two-time team captain at Channel View High School in Queens. He also played for the Navy sprint football team.

Along with family and friends from his Rockaway Beach community, about 160 classmates of Zemser’s from the Naval Academy attended his funeral service held in Hewlett at Riverside-Boulevard Chapel on Broadway Friday. It was streamed live over the Internet.

Capt. Brandy Souble, a Naval Academy superintendent, recalled how excited Zemser was about a recent trip to Israel during his spring break. “My office is not a place where people like to be,” she said. “But he came into see me, and spoke passionately, just overcome with emotion about his experience in Israel. He’d said the experience was life changing. He’d said, ‘I will go back.’ A part of me feels he’s already there.”

Richard Zemser, Justin’s uncle, said how overwhelmed Justin’s parents were by how much love and support they’d been receiving from people, as he was their only child. He stressed how Justin would live on through his accomplishments and encouragement.

“When I read some of these things on Facebook, on other social media, and the news, I couldn’t believe all of the things he did that I didn’t even know about,” he said. “He’d touched so many lives. His death is unconscionable. While all that he’d done, from Channel View to the U.S. Naval Academy, and in being Jewish, it’s all gone in one act, but his memory will live on forever. He’d say, ‘Don’t make it a might-have-been moment.’ Just go do it.”

Howard “Howie” Zemser, Justin’s father, described his son as being “colossal, jumbo and larger than life,” and how he would remain in his heart forever. The two used to fly box kites and play make-believe games at the park when he was a child.