Longtime Lynbrook funeral director, East Rockaway volunteer firefighter George Perry dies at 87

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George Perry was a fifth-generation director of Perry’s Funeral Home in Lynbrook for five decades and a former East Rockaway village trustee.
George Perry was a fifth-generation director of Perry’s Funeral Home in Lynbrook for five decades and a former East Rockaway village trustee.
Courtesy Perry family

Although George Perry’s business was all about death, his loved ones recall that the man himself was full of life.

“He never really said in specific words, ‘live life to the fullest,’” recounted Dr. Laura Perry, one of his three daughters, who now lives in Massachusetts, “but we learned to do so from watching him.”

Perry was a fifth-generation director of Perry’s Funeral Home, on Union Avenue in Lynbrook, for five decades, retiring in 2003. He was also an East Rockaway village trustee, and volunteered for the East Rockaway Fire Department for more than 50 years. He died on Sept. 11 of congestive heart failure. He was 87.

His wake was held on Sept. 15 and 16 at Perry’s, which he sold in 2010. Hundreds of people attended his funeral Mass last Saturday at St. Raymond’s Church in East Rockaway. The ERFD led a motorcade past his East Rockaway home to his burial at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale.

Perry was known for many things: good posture, a distinctively loud laugh, his refusal to wear a coat, his love of suits and his fondness for animals, fishing, photography, walking, gardening, cooking and crossword puzzles.

Perry, the only child of John C. and Betty Perry, was born on April 11, 1930. He graduated from Lynbrook High School in 1947. He spent a year at Clark Preparatory School in Hanover, N.H., then attended Syracuse University, where he played lacrosse and basketball.

In 1950, Perry enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Korea for three years. While there, he frequently wrote home to his parents, often including pictures he took. After the Army, Perry enrolled at the University of New Hampshire to study animal husbandry in the hope of becoming a farmer.

In 1956, however, he was summoned home from college to help at the funeral home after his father fell ill. While there, he met his future wife, Sally Nerod, at a party in Mineola. According to Laura, neither of her future parents wanted to go. George was “dragged there” by friends, while Sally was dealing with a breakup.

“Both of them were forced to go and didn’t really want to,” Laura said. “As she was leaving, he asked for her number in the pouring rain. She yelled her number to him, thinking he would never remember it.”

But George did remember.

He and Sally married on May 4, 1957, and settled in East Rockaway. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this spring. In addition to Laura, they raised two other daughters, Patty and Carolyn.

Despite being busy between the funeral home, the Fire Department, and different community organizations, George was always there when his daughters needed him. Laura recalled one Thanksgiving when her father had to work at the funeral home, and she took part in a running race in Garden City. Much to her surprise, when she reached the finish line, her father was there to greet her. “I don’t know how he knew where the finish line was,” she said. “He was at the finish line with a suit on and said, ‘I’ll see you tonight.’ I was shocked.”

Chris Shelton, 71, of Oceanside, knew Perry for more than 50 years, and volunteered with him in the Fire Department. “He was devoted to his three daughters and his wife,” Shelton said. “All four women in his life, he was extremely devoted to them.”

Perry served a four-year term as a trustee in East Rockaway, was the president of the Kiwanis Club, and was a member of American Legion Post 958 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3350, as well as the St. Mary’s Council No. 2228 Knights of Columbus in Lynbrook. He helped pay tuition for students who could not afford St. Raymond’s Parochial School.

“He was an honest man, and he never had a bad word to say about anybody,” said Shelton, who added that services for his grandmother, grandfather and mother were held at Perry’s Funeral Home. “He was a fun guy. You could always count on George to be the lead cut-up. He loved having a good time in life.”

Shelton said that Perry had many roles in the Fire Department, including chief from 1978 to 1979 and honorary commissioner. He coordinated fire safety education, served as purchasing director and headed the department’s Exempts Group, which provides financial assistance to firefighters and their families. He also assisted at ground zero after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Even though his life’s work meant that he dealt with grieving families, Laura recalled that her father always kept things light. During Fire Department parades, while the rest of his colleagues were in uniform, there was Perry, dressed in a hot pink suit and clown makeup, cramming his 6-foot-1 frame into a beat-up, brightly painted Cadillac and giving candy to children. He also was a master of disguise, once crashing his daughter Carolyn’s birthday dinner, wearing a fake beard and acting like a strange, erratic waiter without her initially realizing it was him.

But Perry always took his role as funeral director seriously. “So many people came up to me at his wake and told me how he helped them through what were the darkest hours of their lives,” Laura said. “… He was selfless. He was the consummate caretaker.”

In addition to Sally, Patty, Laura (Dr. Robert Sheiman) and Carolyn, Perry is survived by his grandchildren Elizabeth Byrne-Scordato (Nick), Kelsey Ann Byrne, Johnathan Lowell Sheiman, Matthew Perry Sheiman and Robert Payson Sheiman; and his great-grandchildren Leo Francis Scordato and Emilia Scordato.

Laura said that in mourning her father, she would heed the advice he gave her during his many years as a funeral director. “One of the only things he directly would tell us about bereavement and people dying is that you always have to remember people later,” she said. “In the months later. In the years later. No matter what is happening.”