Southside Graduate, Red-And-Blue boy dies at 27

“He always had a sparkle in his eyes, an impish grin and the cutest dimple in one of his cheeks,” said Audrey Demas, mother of Rockville Centre resident Gregory Demas, who died at his home on Oct. 9. He was 27.

His family said they suspected a drug overdose to be the cause of death. A toxicology report has not yet been completed.

A 2008 South Side High School graduate, Gregory doubled as a wide receiver and defensive back for the Cyclones’ football team.

As a senior, he was one of eight boys to participate in the school’s Red and Blue competition, an annual girl-dominated color war that shockingly ended in a tie that year. He was also instrumental in organizing the Gordon and McMullan Memorial Flag Football Tournament, a 2009 event in honor of two classmates who had died.

Gregory graduated from Providence College in 2013, earning a degree in finance. In 2014, he became an associate for Blackridge Capital, and had accepted a new position in the wealth management division of Merrill Lynch in Manhattan, where he was scheduled to begin working on Oct. 23.

His loved ones were at no loss for words to describe the effect he had on those around him. “He had a smile that would light up a room wherever he went,” said Jackie Femminello, Gregory’s longtime girlfriend.

“He drew people to him,” added Tim Dowling, his childhood friend and neighbor. “Everybody wanted to be his friend.”

Audrey remembered him as “the ultimate optimist,” adding that her son was compassionate, affectionate, always up for a good time and very loving.

“He was so charismatic, charming and smart that he could persuade anyone to do almost anything,” she said. “It was impossible to resist him.”

Dowling said that he arrived early to Greg’s wake, held at Macken Mortuary on Oct. 11, to pay his respects to the Demas family. When he stepped outside, he recalled, he saw the large crowd of people that had lined up to remember Greg. “I wasn’t surprised that there were that many people there to say goodbye,” he said.

Greg was “people smart, book smart, finance smart and politics smart,” according to Femminello. “I think he just had a love for things beyond his personal life,” she said. “He’s actually one of the smartest people I know.”

Dowling remembered Gregory’s curiosity about the unknown. “I’d go over to his house, and he’d be reading about space, or black holes,” he recalled. “We would have these very deep conversations all the time about life, about the universe.

“He was a whiz,” Dowling continued, noting Greg’s penchant for tinkering with electronics. “He would come over, and if something wasn’t working, he would just go behind the TV and figure it out.”

Demas’s brother, Chris, called it “McGuyver-ing.” “I remember him trying to take apart computers sometimes,” he said, “and a lot of the time he would just break them.”

One time, Chris added, Greg cut his hand open while taking something apart, leaving Greg with a messed-up hand, and the family with a broken appliance.

“He was always a mischievous kid,” he said. “He was always pushing boundaries, whether good or bad. It was his downfall.”

Femminello said that Demas had gone through some changes recently. “He used to be someone who was the life of the party,” she said, “someone who loved to go out. But over the past few years, he became more of a homebody. He liked to stay in, he liked to be more low-key.”

While she attributes part of that to Demas’s drug addiction, for which he had twice sought professional treatment, she said, “He was thinking about what was really important to him. He wanted to keep it very small, very intimate, with the people he really cared about.”

Among those loved ones was the 1-year-old daughter of his sister, Cassandra Dove. “I feel like after his sister had the baby, it gave him more of a purpose,” Femminello said. “He wanted to get better to be there for her, to be a good uncle.”

Chris said that part of his brother’s “uncle duties” was helping out with snack time, riling his niece up so that she would go down easier for a nap, and reading children’s books, like “Goodnight, Moon,” to her.

“Family meant the world to him,” Audrey said, “and he meant the world to us.”

“We have a very close family,” Chris said, “so it was just kind of a passing it on type of thing.” Chris added that Greg may have enjoyed time with his niece because it enabled him to provide for her something that he might have been seeking himself. “A child is pretty helpless,” he noted, “and that sort of coddling is something that he might have needed.“

Chris said that his brother’s death was eye-opening. “You just realize that he was battling demons larger than himself,” he said. “He would want it to be a warning too.

The Demas family “urges everyone to seek help or lend a hand if you know someone who is struggling with addiction.” The Confide Counseling and Consultation Center in Rockville Centre invites anyone who needs it to reach out to them at (516) 764-5522.

“He always thought he was untouchable, because everybody loved him and took care of him,” Chris said. “He had graduated from a good school. He was about to start a new [financial] analyst position. We thought he was turning over a new leaf. This was just something that was too big for him to control. As troubled as he was, he always had a great heart.”

Femminello echoed that sentiment. “If he loved you,” she said, “he loved you with all his heart.”

In addition to Audrey, Christopher and Cassandra, Gregory is survived by his father, Chuck.

“If you had a bad day, or were worried about something, Greg would somehow make you feel better,“ Audrey said. “He was certainly a one-of-a-kind individual and no one on Earth can fill the void that is now left in my heart.”