Trustee appointed in East Rockaway

Twenty-six-year East Rockaway resident and Army veteran Richard Gogarty, 54, has been appointed by the village board as the trustee to fill Irene Villacci’s seat. Villacci resigned from the position last week.

“Because I’ve served 20 years on active duty in the Army, I’ve had an opportunity to see cities and towns over the United States and the world,” Gogarty said. “After seeing all that, I moved to East Rockaway. This is my dream place — a small village in the middle of millions of people. … East Rockaway maintains the independent spirit and closeness found only in a small village.”

As a boy, Gogarty was an Eagle Scout. He moved to East Rockaway in 1985, while serving in the Army. He takes pride in letting people know that his great-grandfather “Cap” Abrams was a clam digger and builder in East Rockaway in the late 1800s.

  During his Army career, Gogarty was a cavalry scout, a squad leader, a platoon sergeant, a first sergeant, a drill instructor, an operations officer and an acting company commander. He was awarded four meritorious medals, a commendation medal, two achievement medals, six good-conduct medals and a national defense medal with Bronze Star. Since his retirement in 1994, he has been the senior Army instructor of the Francis Lewis High School JROTC in Queens and the Commander Camp Patriot Summer Camp in Camp Edwards, Mass.

He was named the top senior Army instructor in the U.S., Queens Teacher of the Year in 2000 and PTA Leader of the Year in 1995 and 2003, and was recognized by New York City for leading numerous community service projects including park restorations, food and clothing drives, Operation Christmas Child and relief programs for Hurricane Katrina victims. Gogarty has also been recognized by the Queens County American Legion for working at veterans hospitals and providing honor guards for a variety of ceremonies.