Florence M. Gear dies at 101

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Florence “Flo” M. Gear, of Regent Street, died at home on Dec. 1. She was 101.

Born on Feb. 23, 1915 in Brooklyn, NY, she was the daughter of Frederick William Gear and Elizabeth Louisa (Taylor) Gear. She was the sister of Mary E. Gear and 2nd Lt. Frederick “Al” Gear, the aunt of Robert Frederick Gear and the great-aunt of Alice Taylor Gear. The eldest child of Welsh-English immigrants, Flo’s father was a mechanic and occasional automotive consultant for Theodore Roosevelt, who made Flo’s birth a family legend when he gifted her father $10 to commemorate the occasion. As a small child, Flo lived for two years in the village of Keevil in Wiltshire, England, with her mother and her siblings.

Flo’s earliest elementary education took place in Wales, and resumed in Valley Stream when her family returned to America in the early 1920’s. Flo’s much-loved mother died while Flo was in high school, a loss that propelled Flo to become a protective and nurturing force in her siblings’ lives. She graduated from Valley Stream Central High School in 1933. Flo had an irrepressible passion for caring for “all creatures great and small.”

She had a long career in early education, graduating from the Savage School for Physical Education in 1936, and then earning a Bachelor of Science in physical education from Western Kentucky State Teachers College in 1937. She later earned her certification to teach elementary school, and she taught in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District until her retirement in 1970.

After retirement, Flo traveled extensively with her sister throughout Europe and the United States and Canada. Flo and her sister Mary were fiercely proud of their independence, and for nearly a century they lived modest lives in Valley Stream, devoted to their community and to charity. They were active in their local 4-H group as members and later as camp councilors throughout the 1930’s. Later in life, Flo assisted her sister in running the Grace Methodist thrift shop and coordinating the church craft fairs, for which the two of them spent countless hours over a seventy-year span creating craft items to sell.

Flo adored animals and enjoyed rearing all varieties of them, including cats, chickens (in her WWII “Victory Coop,”) and lost or injured ducklings, rabbits and songbirds. She even once took it upon herself to “liberate” a family of opossums from an unsympathetic neighbor’s house and raised them to adulthood.

After her brother Al died in the Second World War, Flo helped to raise her young nephew Robert, instilling in him his life-long calling to raise, care for, train and advocate for animals.

Flo spent the tenth decade of her long life ensuring that her family’s history was passed down to her nephew and grandniece, well aware that she would otherwise be the last person to recall so much from so long ago. She is survived by her grandniece, Alice Taylor Gear, and her nephew’s widow Jane McHale, as well as descendants of her parent’s families in the United Kingdom. She declined to have a memorial service.

The family suggests memorial contributions be sent to Valley Stream Cat Rescue, PO Box 1333, Valley Stream, NY 11582.