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Mostly Cloudy Syed Majid, ‘a very giving person,’ dies
Dedicated his life to the community
Syed Majid, a longtime Oceanside resident who was very active in the community, died on March 1. He was 79.
Majid — Sy to his many friends — was a member of the Oceanside Kiwanis, Oceanside Community Service and the South Side Fire House, and was an active member of the Baldwin American Legion post.
“He was a great guy, that’s all I can say,” said Barbera Majid, his wife of nearly 50 years. “He was a good, kind, giving man. He helped everyone in my family who needed help. He was a very giving person.”
Majid was born on March 26, 1931, in Brooklyn. He was an engineer by trade. In his early days, he worked at Precise Development Corporation on Neal Court in Oceanside, where he met Barbera more than 50 years ago. The two settled in Oceanside, and Majid soon became active in the community.
“He was the hardest behind-the-scenes worker and volunteered more time than anybody I really know for multiple organizations,” said Bob Transom, a member of Kiwanis and OCS, who has known Majid for over 15 years. “He was a longtime member of Kiwanis, almost as long as he was living here. So it’s got to be 30-plus years.”
After he left Precise Development, Majid formed his own engineering company, SAM, where he worked until he retired in the early 1990s.
“When he retired from his company, he said he wanted to do something,” Barbera said. “He wanted to keep going.”
So Majid was hired as a messenger for the Oceanside School District, running mail between the district’s different buildings. “He took the job to a new level,” said Ocean-side Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown, who also knew Majid through Kiwanis. “He was very pleasant to everyone — he was a real ‘up’ person. He’d go into the schools and just be very friendly with everyone …”
People remember the little things that made Majid stand out — like how he would always say “how doin’?” They also remembered his tireless work for the various groups he was a part of and how he always worked without expecting any recognition.
“When I went to the Kiwanis pancake breakfast on Super Bowl Sunday, he was there at the door, collecting the money,” said Brown. “He never looked for accolades or credit. He always worked behind the scenes.”
