Board names Man and Woman of the Year

Lynbrook Village honored their Man and Woman of the Year for 2014 at the Board of Trustees meeting on Monday at Village Hall. Jay Francis Korth and Laura Ryder received the honor based on recommendations from community members.

Korth served as a member of the Air Corps in the central Pacific during World War II and became a 1st lieutenant of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He received his Bachelor of Laws from St. John’s University and then went to New York University for his Master of Laws.

He was allowed to practice in federal court as a prior lawyer specializing in negligence. He later opened a law office in Lynbrook focusing his attention to municipal law. Korth served on the Village’s board of trustees for nine years and was the Village Attorney for 20 years following his tenure as a trustee. After his time as the Village Attorney, he was often consulted as a special counsel for the Village.

Korth has served as a lector at the Parish of Our Lady of Peace Church, is a member of the Saint Mary’s Knights of Columbus, the Lynbrook Elks Club and Nassau County Bar Association. He often volunteers his time with the American Cancer Society and is Chair of the Lynbrook Boy Scouts Budget Committee.

For 60 years Korth has been a member of the Lynbrook American Legion Post No. 335 and has served as the post’s past commander. To show their support, numerous members of the American Legion attended the meeting to watch Korth receive the award.

Korth thanked the board, American Legion members and his family for their continued support throughout his life. He said receiving this honor was a result of good luck he’s been fortunate to have.

“I consider myself a very lucky person with the timing and events that happened,” he said. “Getting through World War II without getting shot through and so on. Coming to Lynbrook, that was a big surprise too when I got involved in the Village Hall.”

He saved the biggest thanks for last, reserving that for his wife of 61 years, Grace, as he asked her to accompany him to receive the award.

Although not directly involved in a war herself, Ryder played an instrumental role in helping the community after the events of 9/11 and the creation of the Memorial Park located behind Village Hall.

Carol Burak, a member of the Lynbrook Chamber of Commerce and the person who nominated Ryder said she was able to create a “tangible place where one could come reflect, pray and cry, if needed, to relive their sorrow for just a bit.”

Ryder is also the chair of the Lynbrook Community Chest Fund, a program that aims to financially help the members of the community who qualify for assistance.

She’s also helped her family stick together after her brother, Kevin, was confined to a wheelchair after a near-death, on-the-job injury that also left him in a coma in March of 2011. She brought the family together and organized times at the hospital so that her brother did not have to spend a moment alone. He’s starting to work at walking again and attended the meeting. He had to leave before Ryder could receive the award, but him being there, she said, was a big moment for her.

In a touching moment, Trustee Thomas Atkinson, Ryder’s brother-in-law, read a letter from Peter Ledwith, Ryder’s father and the Village Attorney, who could not be at the meeting.

“Your love for our Village has always become so apparent in your continual urging of government officials and your brother and sister residents to do things to beautify our hometown,” Atkinson read from the letter. “Your ideas are creative and usually quite easily within reach.”

Ryder said that she and her husband, Mike, often tell their children that everyone has to deal with difficult situations, but there are people out there who have to deal with worse.

“That’s when we have the opportunity to step up and to do the right thing and offer ourselves and offer our services to help other people who may have it a little harder than we have,” she said.