Charles Wroblewski devoted to his hometown

“There’s no place like Seaford,” says Charles Wroblewski, a retired FBI agent, who is happy to be back home in his “easy going, small community, where everyone knows each other.” For Wroblewski, Seaford lives in the past and the present. He can recall fishing and crabbing, or being in a boat on the bay.

“We were a sleepy community,” he said. “I can remember the dairy farm where the high school stands and the red brick schoolhouse — Jackson Avenue School — that’s now an attorney’s office.”

But he will also tell you about Seaford today, about his friends and neighbors, who, like him, are involved in a number of community service organizations that make Seaford a great place to live. There’s the Lions Club and the Seaford Historical Society, for starters. But also near and dear to his heart is the American Legion as well as his church, St. William the Abbot.

Wroblewski returned to Seaford in June of 2005 to spend time with his mother, Marie, and to give back to his community. “I’m lucky I can do this,” he said. “I figure if good happens to you, and then pass it on, why not pass it on right here.”

He has been honored for his service at the Seaford American Legion’s Law and Order Ceremony with an award for distinguished service to the community. Wroblewski was nominated by Legislator Dave Denenberg for Nassau County Senior Citizen of the Year and was also a recipient of the New York State and Bermuda Lions Foundation’s Robert J. Uplinger Distinguished Service Award. He was the 2012 Seaford 9/11 Honorary Patriot for significant contributions to society and in 2014 won the highest honor in Lions — the Melvin Jones Fellow Award for dedicated humanitarian service.

Wroblewski was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn but moved to Seaford in 1948. “Our house was pre-cut like a jig saw puzzle and put together on a lot in the Harbor,” he recalled. “We had no car; my father worked construction and at Bohack’s. My mother would take me in a little red wagon to the village to shop.”

He attended Jackson Avenue School, then Seaford Avenue School and was in the second graduating class from Seaford High School in 1959. Those early school years were impactful on Wroblewski who created a $1,000 scholarship for a Seaford High School senior in 2001 in memory of his second grade teacher, Helen Snyder. “She took me under her wing and followed me through my school career,” he said.

Wroblewski graduated from St. John’s University, then St. John’s Law School and was drafted into the U.S. Army where he served with a staff judge advocate during the Vietnam conflict. Upon his return home, Wroblewski learned the FBI was hiring and got his first job in the Louisville Division. From there, he worked in Chicago, then FBI Headquarters. He was also stationed in the Baltimore Division as a Supervisory Special Agent assigned to white collar crimes, kidnapping, extortion, fugitives and bank robberies. He then returned to FBI headquarters.

Despite his whirlwind career, Wroblewski remained connected to Seaford. “I always kept in touch with my graduating class,” he said. “I even went to Europe with some of my classmates, several times.”

Since Wroblewski’s return to Seaford, he has helped to revitalize the Seaford Historical Society. Carla Powell recalls meeting Wroblewski at a high school awards ceremony. “He sat next to me and we got to talking,” Powell said. “I told him how my late husband [Bill Powell] and I were interested in getting the Historical Society up and running again. He said ‘let’s do this’ and he took it on with all his heart and soul. Charlie does what needs to be done — totally committed to whatever he takes on.”

Wroblewski said the Historical Society is still a “work in progress but we’ve made some improvements. The building was falling apart but with the community’s help, we’ve been able to paint and get some things done.”

Additionally, Wroblewski is involved in Seaford’s Lions Club. “A great organization and a worthwhile expenditure of time,” he says. “It does something for the young and old. We raise funds for a diabetic child to go to summer camp; we have sponsored a guide dog and we provide glasses, among other things.”

Wroblewski has been a member of the American Legion for more than 34 years, first at the J. Edgar Hoover Post 56 in Washington and since 2005, Seaford’s American Legion Post 1132. “I’ve been secretary and I’m now chaplain,” he said of the post, which also supports Boy Scout Troops 239 and 581. “We like to guide and assist the Boy Scouts to do work in the community.

“I’m a lucky man,” he continued. “I want to do for others. It’s exciting to see others blossom. I can’t think of a better way to spend my time.”