By: John Borrelli
The Huckleberry Frolic Planning Committee has chosen Guy Donza as one of its 2001 honorees. Donza will be officially recognized at the 32nd Huckleberry Frolic on June 9.
Bob Kelly, the chairman for this year's event, representing the Knights of Columbus, said, "The honorees are selected for their outstanding community involvement."
Donza has lived with his wife, Marie, in the Village of East Rockaway for 38 years. His four children grew up in the village, and all four of them attended school in East Rockaway.
His involvement in the community began almost as soon as he arrived from Brooklyn. Retired now from the village's fire department, he volunteered there beginning in 1963, and was the department's chief for two years beginning in 1984. He was also a member of the Kiwanis Club for many years.
In 1988, Donza began the studies that, five years later, would see him ordained as a church deacon. Classes were held mostly on weekends, "at first, for 12 hours a day, then down to eight hours a day," Donza remembers. "It took a lot of time. There were a lot of retreats," he said.
Donza's father was a funeral director. While in high school, Donza did repair work. "But the funeral business was always there for me," he said.
Now the third generation of Donzas continues the tradition. Son Thomas, also an East Rockaway resident, is a licensed funeral director. Daughter Christine and her husband, now living in Florida, are licensed funeral directors, but Christine has taken time off to raise her three children. Donza's daughter, Josephine, works in the office at the funeral home in East Rockaway.
Before he started his own business, Donza worked mostly at Jewish funeral homes in New York City, beginning in 1958. He was affiliated with Paradise Chapels in New York City beginning in 1964. It was a partnership that lasted until a year ago, even though he started his own business some 16 years ago.
Donza fondly recalled the shaky start he got when he decided to open his own business. He bought a piece of property in East Rockaway. It's the same piece of land where his business stands today. At the time, a house and cottage stood on the property. Additions were needed on the house to accommodate the funeral home.
The current parking lot stands where a cottage existed at the time the property was purchased. Guy told a friend, who was interested in buying the cottage, that if he get the cottage off the property he could have it. The friend did just that, and the cottage still stands in Oceanside, where it was carried off to in 1984.
Donza made a "handshake deal" with a friend to begin excavating the property so that the necessary additions could be constructed, "right before the 1983 Memorial Day parade," Donza recalls. He'd applied for a bank loan, but hadn't heard from the bank. When he did hear from them, shortly after excavation was under way, he was informed that the bank turned him down for the loan. "I told the guy I was talking to find his supervisor and wait for me," Donza said.
The bank was a savings bank, with no history of making commercial loans. Donza met with the vice president of the bank, who told him to "write a proposal," explaining why he felt he should be loaned the "couple of hundred thousand" he needed.
When the VP read the proposal, Donza said, "he called me and said, We believe in your dream. The bank gave me the money, and they got it all back, right on time."
Donza formed the East Rockaway Trade Association in 1990. "It was a very vibrant organization," he said. They sponsored street fairs and events that, he said, were "for the betterment of the community."
Several years later, Donza said, "for some reason, it slowed up." In 1999, a member filed a lawsuit, Donza said, "claiming that the association's election was illegal. Though the association still exists, all the controversy has crippled most of its efforts of late.
It's too bad," Donza said. "We had some great plans for an art auction, an antique car show, more street fairs."
Though Donza didn't want to go into specifics, the trade association may be replaced by a new organization. Nothing can happen while the current association still exists, though.
