BY Brian Zanzonico
Along with longtime friend and collaborator Salem Tamer, Coveney edited the church's monthly newsletter, Parish News, for nearly two decades. It was a thin pamphlet before the duo took over, but Coveney put his talents as a former copy boy at the Boston Globe to work as the Parish News grew to 16 pages and was widely read throughout the St. Boniface community.
The church experienced financial problems beginning with the closing of the school in 2004, and the Parish News ceased publication shortly afterward. But Coveney, as he had been since moving to the area with his wife, Rose, in the 1950s, remained an active member of St. Boniface. He continued his Thanksgiving collection for veterans in the New York State Veterans Home at St. Alban's in Queens, even after he suffered a debilitating stroke last year.
Despite being confined to a wheelchair, the man who helped raise money for church expansion in the 1970s and wrote a retrospective for the church's 150th anniversary made it to Mass nearly every Sunday. Each time there was a $20 bill folded in the pocket of his shirt for an usher to collect.
Coveney, predeceased by his wife, is survived by children Rosemary Hillengas, Kathleen Bertuglia, David Jr., Elizabeth and Carolyn, six grandchildren, and a sister, Mary.
"He had a gentle way of pushing and harassing you to make deadline," said Sister Evelyn Lamoureux. "He'd say, 'Sister, I know you probably realize there was a deadline last week, but ...'"
Coveney was born in Massachusetts in 1918, and lost his father and two sisters by the time he was 7. He majored in chemistry at Boston College and the University of Chicago before joining the Army Air Force in 1942. Stationed in Canada and later in Bermuda, Coveney worked as a meteorologist to aid the military on the ground and in the air.
After the war, he married Rose Leonard, and they settled in Long Island City. Working for the U.S Weather Bureau - now the National Weather Service - he worked at Idlewild Airport, now John F. Kennedy International. In 1972 he was named chief of weather operations in the bureau's eastern region. He retired in 1979 and began working on the Parish News.
"He was known as a fair, gifted, innovative leader in the weather service," said his daughter Carolyn.
The same could be said about his impact on the Parish News, according to Tamer. A graphic artist by trade, Tamer said that Coveney had an ability to motivate St. Boniface parishioners to contribute to strengthen the publication that was, after all, theirs. "Dave would write, I would write, and he would get people to write things," Tamer recalled. "He had a way of getting people involved."
Lamoureux said the community was well aware of the hours Coveney devoted to the newsletter, and appreciated the work of Coveney and Tamer, who is 84. "He was recognized for his gifts," she said. "David had a knack for taking something and running with it. He got the newsletter off the ground and got it going."
The Saturday before Coveney died, the Rev. William Gomes, the church pastor, was busy with precana, a marriage seminar for engaged Catholic couples, when he received a call from one of Coveney's daughters. The end was near.
"He instantly recognized that I was there to give a blessing," Gomes said of his administering of last rites. "He knew what it was about. He looked at me with the utmost clarity and said, 'Father Willie, thank you for coming to give me the sacrament to help me go home.'"
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