Former Malverne resident lived to 100

Troy Baydala, WWII vet, lifelong athlete and man of faith, dies

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Troy Baydala, a former Malvernite who spent his life working to improve his “mind, body and soul,” died of natural causes on March 14. He was 100.
“It sounds hokey and corny, but that’s literally how he lived,” said his fifth child, Terry. “Each day he would attend daily Mass, he would get some exercise in, and he would find some way to expand his viewpoint on the world. It was a great example for us to follow.”

A lifelong athlete
Born and raised in Malverne, Baydala spent his childhood working odd jobs to support his family, mostly at Hart’s Nursery, a gardening store, with his father, Andrew, who worked there full-time. He would go on to become a four-letter athlete at Malverne High School, where he excelled in basketball, football, track and his favorite sport, baseball.

His second child, Troy, also known as Tack, said that his father attributed his athleticism to his faith in God, along with a few other things. “If you’ve ever planted trees and moved things around, you’re really working your muscles,” Troy said. “Also, he had my grandmother’s great food, and he got his eight hours of sleep.”
In his later years, Troy excelled as a golfer. At age 86, he became the oldest golfer in the history of the North Fork Country Club to make a hole-in-one. In 1990 he won a mixed couples tournament with his sixth and youngest child, Sue Stype.
“Out of all the boys, with their golfing prowess, I’m the only one that won a tournament with our father,” Sue said jokingly.
Terry recalled a phone conversation he had with his father when he was 92 or so. During their chat, Terry noticed that his father was breathing heavily. “I asked him if he was OK, and he said, ‘Yeah, I just got off the treadmill,’” Terry recounted. “That meant a lot to me, and it taught me that you should never give up. You should always try to make yourself better, regardless of your age.”
Baydala graduated from Malverne High School in 1936, and married his high school sweetheart, Ann Kern, in 1941, after he joined the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant ordinance officer. He served in different parts of the country, including Omaha, Neb.; Portland, Maine; and Aberdeen, Md., until 1945.

A humble businessman
After his service in the Army, Baydala became a bank teller at Franklin National Bank in 1949. He would eventually become senior vice president of the bank, and in 1972, he left to become executive vice president of the Long Island Savings Bank. He retired from banking in 1982.
He knew several notable people during his life. Former Malverne Mayor Francis Purcell was a close friend, and they played on baseball teams together, with Baydala catching and Purcell at shortstop. Former Modell’s Chairman William Modell was one of his banking clients.
“He interfaced with people at that level, but he never put on any airs,” said Tim, Troy’s third child. “He was so understated compared to today’s day and age, where it’s all about the show and the bling, and projecting more than what you really have. His mentality has rubbed off on all of us.”

Faith and family
While Baydala was on jury duty in 1969, he sketched a family crest, which depicted his family’s values: faith in God, sports and knowledge. The crest also featured colored rectangles that illustrated the birthstones of each member of his immediate family.
“The creativeness of my father was incredible,” Tom, Troy’s fourth child, said. “He was a very well-rounded man, but spiritually — mind, body and soul — that’s the biggest thing that I think of. He was our anchor, along with our mom. The two of them together, what a pair they were.”
All of the Baydalas’ children agreed that faith is what molded their father and the family. They all attend Mass on a daily basis, and have continued to promote faith in their own families.
“His greatest accomplishment, and his greatest gift to me, was him making me aware of God,” Troy said. “He was always a forward thinker, and he taught me and my entire family that God is the linchpin to all that we do.”
Every year, the Baydalas have held their own traditional Easter celebration, in which they prepare dozens of pierogis, a Polish dumpling, as part of a huge breakfast for the entire family.
“The best thing my mother and my father did was raising their family, because we’re all so close,” Sue said. “The faith that they gave us, we all rely on that when times are difficult.”
Sue and her oldest sibling, Mary Jo Cowan, spent more time with their father to assist him after their mother died in 1999. Sue said that in his final years, he urged people to smile. “If you just smile, it can change the world,” she added. “We call it the smile campaign.”
“He touched a lot of people, and he lived his life by example,” Tim said. “We’re just trying to emulate him. When I think about the things he would do in any situation, it helps us to stay on the straight and narrow. He was our North Star.”