On this day 10 years ago, a man who influenced me into the world of politics, passed away after playing a charitable basketball game for the heart! Here is to you, Mister Kevin Sheehy, thanks for the great memories!
Beloved Tottenville High School teacher Kevin Sheehy, 57, collapses during a faculty-student basketball game for the Heart Association.
Tottenville High School teacher and community activist Kevin L. Sheehy, 57, collapsed and died of a heart attack yesterday afternoon in the school gymnasium while playing a benefit basketball game for the American Heart Association.
Stunned students and colleagues watched from the stands as school officials tried to revive Sheehy, who had crumpled to the floor just before he was to come out of the student-faculty game in the third period.
The students were ushered out of the gym when medics arrived. Continued resuscitation efforts failed to revive him.
A native Staten Islander and Tottenville graduate who spent more than 30 years in front of the blackboard of his alma mater, Sheehy was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. in Staten Island University Hospital, Prince's Bay.
Recognized as a man who devoted unimaginable hours of time and energy to his students and his community, Sheehy, the recipient of the 2000 Patrick Daly Memorial Award, was always ready to respond above and beyond to a worthy cause.
Yesterday, the cause was Hoops for Hearts Day at Tottenville, the day the school's faculty challenges a team of students in a basketball game with all proceeds benefiting the American Heart Association. He was to continue his Valentine's celebration last night by surprising his wife, Elaine, with dinner at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, where cabaret legend Bobby Short was giving a benefit concert.
Instead, the Island was left mourning the man who gave his heart to everything he did.
With a smile on his face yesterday afternoon, Sheehy, the faculty team coach, shuffled around the court, enjoying the camaraderie more than the competition. He suddenly crouched over during the third period and fell to the gym floor.
The cheering stopped. Stunned and silent, the audience watched as school officials rushed to the court to administer CPR.
When medics arrived, students were ushered out of the school, and technicians repeatedly tried to revive Sheehy. Scared and concerned, students continuously called the school for updates.
Jim Munson, coach of the Tottenville Pirates football team, described the atmosphere in the gym as somber.
"It happened in front of a gymnasium full of kids," he said. "The kids were unbelievable. They just sat there pulling for him to come through. He was Tottenville High School." Classes were scheduled to resume today and grief counselors were expected to be on hand for students and faculty.
Sheehy's goal was to get one foul shot in during the game, according to John Tuminaro, Tottenville's principal. While Tuminaro couldn't recall if Sheehy scored during the game, it is clear he won the hearts of the Tottenville and Staten Island community.
Sheehy had been perfecting his jump shot in the days leading up to the game on the playground of PS 4 in Arden Heights while waiting for his wife to finish her day of teaching.
Munson, a Tottenville graduate, said Sheehy was prepping to take his last foul shot and was then planning to sit out the rest of the game when he collapsed.
"We immediately started to attend to him," Munson said. "It was a tough day for all of us. You can't replace guys like Kevin Sheehy. He was a dear man, a very good man."
Student Prathima Nandivada was holding Sheehy's keys and a gold ring when he collapsed on the gym floor.
"He gave me his ring and his keys to hold while he played because he said he didn't want to hurt his hand," said the 16-year-old junior, who was selling tickets at the door. "I have a similar ring on my finger and of course mine is much smaller than his. When it happened, I put his over my ring and I just held it there. They tried to take it twice, but I wouldn't let go of it."
Eventually, Prathima turned over the keys and the ring to an assistant principal, but said Sheehy will always hold a special place in her heart.
"What can I say about Mr. Sheehy," said the Young Ambassador and treasurer of the junior class. "He is by far the most amazing man I have ever met in my entire life. Up until the minute he left us, he was always thinking about tomorrow. It was always more, more, more. Nothing he did was ever enough. He always had new hopes, new plans, it was always about the future and never about himself."
Community activist Sheehy was a Renaissance man who balanced his career with politics and community activism. He earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from Wagner College, where he also received a master of science degree in science education, a master's degree in business administration and an honorary doctorate of science degree. His love for Wagner, where he was a longtime member of the board of trustees, was much like his love for Tottenville.
"We had a board of trustees meeting and I was with him yesterday all day and he looked quite chipper," said Dr. Norman Smith, the president of Wagner College who considered Sheehy a close friend. "He had been on our board 14 years, one of the longest serving members. He was an icon and a tremendous cheerleader on the Wagner campus."
Smith said it was Sheehy's spirit he will remember the most.
"He had such a positive attitude, was a great guy in every way," he said. "I don't know how he did it all, between the high school and Wagner College and all the other things he was doing in the community. He was a role model for generations of students who graduated Wagner College."
In 1959, while still a student at Wagner, Sheehy began working at Dean Witter Co. on Wall Street. By 1961, he was working 12- to 14-hour days and co-founded the company's mutual funds sales division. Still, his love of Tottenville nagged at him and he was active in the school's alumni association.
In 1967, he gave up Wall Street and began teaching at New Dorp High School. Three years later, he returned to Luten Avenue and never looked back.
In December, Sheehy was award the Patrick Daly Memorial Award by Borough President Guy V. Molinari. The award was established eight years ago following the 1992 murder of New Dorp resident Patrick Daly, who was principal of PS 15 in Brooklyn.
"Kevin was always there at so many different things at the same time," Molinari said. "He was my Patrick Daly winner and I don't know of anybody who was recognized that was more humble and grateful. I look back and I am so grateful that I was able to get him that award. This is an enormous loss."
In August, Sheehy accepted the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Community Services Award, the New York State AFL-CIO's highest honor, which is bestowed on a union leader who addresses union and community issues through service and volunteerism. He was Tottenville's chapter leader to the UFT and a national delegate to the American Federation of Teachers.
Sheehy was also a delegate to the New York State United Federation of Teachers and a member of the citywide United Federation of Teachers Finance Committee. He was named to "Who's Who Among America's Teachers" and was often voted Tottenville's teacher of the year.
He served as chairman of the school's Mentor Committee and headed the school's Young Ambassadors program, which pairs students with elected officials and takes trips to City Hall, Albany and Washington.
Sheehy played a key role last March in Project Hospitality's Dine Out Against Hunger event by assembling 25 Tottenville High School students to act as volunteer "ambassadors" at participating Island restaurants.
He instilled a sense of community spirit and obligation in many students by inviting community leaders to the school to celebrate Women in History Month and by organizing a walk around the school grounds to acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Sheehy demonstrated a compassion for students with special needs and challenges. Several years ago, he helped Jack Ameduri, a student at the Hungerford School, receive a diploma from Tottenville High School. He mentored the young man and saw that he was duly acknowledged for his participation in a school beautification program.
With his students, he held fund-raisers each year for the Staten Island Children's Campaign.
"He was a lovely man," said Mike Fortunato, campaign president. "He got his children involved with us and gave us a generous donation every year. This is a huge loss for all of Staten Island."
Sheehy served as president of the Greenbelt Conservancy, and was the former president of the Friends of Snug Harbor and the South Shore Junior Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of Molinari's Greenbelt advisory committee and a member of the board of trustees and a founding member of the Noble Maritime Collection. He owned a large set of original John Noble lithographs.
"He was very devoted to John Noble," said Erin Urban, director of the Noble Museum. "He was devoted to the museum. He was a warm, friendly person who loved children especially."
In many ways, Sheehy was Staten Island's unofficial mayor, meeting and greeting people wherever he went with a warm smile and a strong handshake or gentle hug. Though he dabbled in politics, he never won an elected post.
Sheehy was rare gem, showing up at then-Republican Rep. Guy Molinari's victory party in 1984 with a bottle of champagne to toast his opponent in the congressional race.
"He was a very good campaigner, a tough opponent," Molinari recalled. "He blew me away on election night, when who walks in but my opponent. It was unheard of. He was a real person and that's the measure of the man. That's what this guy was all about. He exuded class and dignity. He toasted me in front of everybody. Very few people in our society have the class and dignity to do something like this."
Coining him "Mr. Tottenville" and a "true purple," the school color, faculty, both past and present!
February 15, 2000
Kevin Sheehy, 57, collapses during a faculty-student basketball game for the Heart Association.
Tottenville High School teacher and community activist Kevin L. Sheehy, 57, collapsed and died of a heart attack yesterday afternoon in the school gymnasium while playing a benefit basketball game for the American Heart Association.
Stunned students and colleagues watched from the stands as school officials tried to revive Sheehy, who had crumpled to the floor just before he was to come out of the student-faculty game in the third period.
The students were ushered out of the gym when medics arrived. Continued resuscitation efforts failed to revive him.
A native Staten Islander and Tottenville graduate who spent more than 30 years in front of the blackboard of his alma mater, Sheehy was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. in Staten Island University Hospital, Prince's Bay.
Recognized as a man who devoted unimaginable hours of time and energy to his students and his community, Sheehy, the recipient of the 2000 Patrick Daly Memorial Award, was always ready to respond above and beyond to a worthy cause.
Yesterday, the cause was Hoops for Hearts Day at Tottenville, the day the school's faculty challenges a team of students in a basketball game with all proceeds benefiting the American Heart Association. He was to continue his Valentine's celebration last night by surprising his wife, Elaine, with dinner at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, where cabaret legend Bobby Short was giving a benefit concert.
Instead, the Island was left mourning the man who gave his heart to everything he did.
With a smile on his face yesterday afternoon, Sheehy, the faculty team coach, shuffled around the court, enjoying the camaraderie more than the competition. He suddenly crouched over during the third period and fell to the gym floor.
The cheering stopped. Stunned and silent, the audience watched as school officials rushed to the court to administer CPR.
When medics arrived, students were ushered out of the school, and technicians repeatedly tried to revive Sheehy. Scared and concerned, students continuously called the school for updates.
Jim Munson, coach of the Tottenville Pirates football team, described the atmosphere in the gym as somber.
"It happened in front of a gymnasium full of kids," he said. "The kids were unbelievable. They just sat there pulling for him to come through. He was Tottenville High School." Classes were scheduled to resume today and grief counselors were expected to be on hand for students and faculty.
Sheehy's goal was to get one foul shot in during the game, according to John Tuminaro, Tottenville's principal. While Tuminaro couldn't recall if Sheehy scored during the game, it is clear he won the hearts of the Tottenville and Staten Island community.
Sheehy had been perfecting his jump shot in the days leading up to the game on the playground of PS 4 in Arden Heights while waiting for his wife to finish her day of teaching.
Munson, a Tottenville graduate, said Sheehy was prepping to take his last foul shot and was then planning to sit out the rest of the game when he collapsed.
"We immediately started to attend to him," Munson said. "It was a tough day for all of us. You can't replace guys like Kevin Sheehy. He was a dear man, a very good man."
Student Prathima Nandivada was holding Sheehy's keys and a gold ring when he collapsed on the gym floor.
"He gave me his ring and his keys to hold while he played because he said he didn't want to hurt his hand," said the 16-year-old junior, who was selling tickets at the door. "I have a similar ring on my finger and of course mine is much smaller than his. When it happened, I put his over my ring and I just held it there. They tried to take it twice, but I wouldn't let go of it."
Eventually, Prathima turned over the keys and the ring to an assistant principal, but said Sheehy will always hold a special place in her heart.
"What can I say about Mr. Sheehy," said the Young Ambassador and treasurer of the junior class. "He is by far the most amazing man I have ever met in my entire life. Up until the minute he left us, he was always thinking about tomorrow. It was always more, more, more. Nothing he did was ever enough. He always had new hopes, new plans, it was always about the future and never about himself."
Community activist Sheehy was a Renaissance man who balanced his career with politics and community activism. He earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from Wagner College, where he also received a master of science degree in science education, a master's degree in business administration and an honorary doctorate of science degree. His love for Wagner, where he was a longtime member of the board of trustees, was much like his love for Tottenville.
"We had a board of trustees meeting and I was with him yesterday all day and he looked quite chipper," said Dr. Norman Smith, the president of Wagner College who considered Sheehy a close friend. "He had been on our board 14 years, one of the longest serving members. He was an icon and a tremendous cheerleader on the Wagner campus."
Smith said it was Sheehy's spirit he will remember the most.
"He had such a positive attitude, was a great guy in every way," he said. "I don't know how he did it all, between the high school and Wagner College and all the other things he was doing in the community. He was a role model for generations of students who graduated Wagner College."
In 1959, while still a student at Wagner, Sheehy began working at Dean Witter Co. on Wall Street. By 1961, he was working 12- to 14-hour days and co-founded the company's mutual funds sales division. Still, his love of Tottenville nagged at him and he was active in the school's alumni association.
In 1967, he gave up Wall Street and began teaching at New Dorp High School. Three years later, he returned to Luten Avenue and never looked back.
In December, Sheehy was award the Patrick Daly Memorial Award by Borough President Guy V. Molinari. The award was established eight years ago following the 1992 murder of New Dorp resident Patrick Daly, who was principal of PS 15 in Brooklyn.
"Kevin was always there at so many different things at the same time," Molinari said. "He was my Patrick Daly winner and I don't know of anybody who was recognized that was more humble and grateful. I look back and I am so grateful that I was able to get him that award. This is an enormous loss."
In August, Sheehy accepted the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Community Services Award, the New York State AFL-CIO's highest honor, which is bestowed on a union leader who addresses union and community issues through service and volunteerism. He was Tottenville's chapter leader to the UFT and a national delegate to the American Federation of Teachers.
Sheehy was also a delegate to the New York State United Federation of Teachers and a member of the citywide United Federation of Teachers Finance Committee. He was named to "Who's Who Among America's Teachers" and was often voted Tottenville's teacher of the year.
He served as chairman of the school's Mentor Committee and headed the school's Young Ambassadors program, which pairs students with elected officials and takes trips to City Hall, Albany and Washington.
Sheehy played a key role last March in Project Hospitality's Dine Out Against Hunger event by assembling 25 Tottenville High School students to act as volunteer "ambassadors" at participating Island restaurants.
He instilled a sense of community spirit and obligation in many students by inviting community leaders to the school to celebrate Women in History Month and by organizing a walk around the school grounds to acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Sheehy demonstrated a compassion for students with special needs and challenges. Several years ago, he helped Jack Ameduri, a student at the Hungerford School, receive a diploma from Tottenville High School. He mentored the young man and saw that he was duly acknowledged for his participation in a school beautification program.
With his students, he held fund-raisers each year for the Staten Island Children's Campaign.
"He was a lovely man," said Mike Fortunato, campaign president. "He got his children involved with us and gave us a generous donation every year. This is a huge loss for all of Staten Island."
Sheehy served as president of the Greenbelt Conservancy, and was the former president of the Friends of Snug Harbor and the South Shore Junior Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of Molinari's Greenbelt advisory committee and a member of the board of trustees and a founding member of the Noble Maritime Collection. He owned a large set of original John Noble lithographs.
"He was very devoted to John Noble," said Erin Urban, director of the Noble Museum. "He was devoted to the museum. He was a warm, friendly person who loved children especially."
In many ways, Sheehy was Staten Island's unofficial mayor, meeting and greeting people wherever he went with a warm smile and a strong handshake or gentle hug. Though he dabbled in politics, he never won an elected post.
Sheehy was rare gem, showing up at then-Republican Rep. Guy Molinari's victory party in 1984 with a bottle of champagne to toast his opponent in the congressional race.
"He was a very good campaigner, a tough opponent," Molinari recalled. "He blew me away on election night, when who walks in but my opponent. It was unheard of. He was a real person and that's the measure of the man. That's what this guy was all about. He exuded class and dignity. He toasted me in front of everybody. Very few people in our society have the class and dignity to do something like this."
Coining him "Mr. Tottenville" and a "true purple," the school color, faculty, both past and present, said no one will ever love the school more than Mr. Sheehy.
"He lived and breathed this building," said Steven Roseman, assistant principal.
The school will be forever scarred by his death, said Linda Barbato, a former Parent Teacher Association president who worked closely with Sheehy from 1997 to 1999. "There was not enough he could do for the kids, the parents, the teachers. He was the quintessential example of dedication."
His death was totally unexpected, noted Michael Marotta, principal from 1992 to 1999. An unmatched model for students, he was also a strong advocate for teachers, Marotta said.
Eleanor O'Connor, principal of Staten Island Technical High School, arrived at Tottenville yesterday shortly after she received word of Sheehy's death. "He was the heart of so many programs on Staten Island. He was a tremendous human being, vibrant and charming."
"The school is like a family and this death is like losing a family member," she said.
Sheehy has left behind dozens of students who will remember him as an inspiration and a guiding light.
"He was like a grandfather to me," said Jessica Belnavis, a 17-year-old junior who was one of Sheehy's Young Ambassadors.
"I am just in shock he is no longer living," said Jessica, who ran for freshman class president at Sheehy's prodding. Jessica won her first campaign and went on to become president of the sophomore and junior class. "He was such a big influence on my life. School will be so much more different without him, without popping my head into his office and saying 'Hi, Mr. Sheehy.' It's going to be really hard."
Councilman Jerome X. O'Donovan (D-North Shore), a longtime friend, recalled the days when Mr. Sheehy tended bar at Demyan's Hofbrau, a popular restaurant and tavern in Stapleton owned by the late Jack Demyan, the restaurateur, artist and prankster.
"He worked in the old Hofbrau in our college days," O'Donovan said. "When I came home from college, I was always there. He was just a wonderful person, a man of great Irish wit, an intelligent man. I know in my heart all of the Tottenville students and alumni will miss him."
Republican Rep. Vito Fossella called Sheehy "one of a kind."
"I was fortunate to have spent a good deal of time working with Kevin on many projects," Fossella said. "For Kevin, teaching was not just his profession, but a passion that seemed to grow stronger with the years. The mark of a truly special teacher is one who leaves an impression on his students that lasts a lifetime. Kevin's legacy will be the thousands of young men and women who had the good fortune to call him their teacher."
Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island) said he was "absolutely floored" when he was told of Sheehy's death.
"He was simply one of the nicest human beings I have ever met in my life, in or out of government," he said. "I went to the Daly Awards and it was one of those nights I didn't have any other meetings and I could have taken the night off, but I thought it's about Kevin, let me go. I went and he was such an inspiration in his speech that I walked out of there with a bounce in my step. I wrote him a handwritten note the next day telling him that."
Oddo said he hopes the tragedy will propel his effort to have automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) portable devices used to shock a heart back into rhythm in city buildings, mass transportation hubs, fitness centers and other public places.
"Maybe in his own unique way, now he is going to push the issue to the forefront," he said. "Maybe Kevin Sheehy's last contribution to the Staten Island community will be the highlighting of the need to have these things in schools and public buildings."
"One word to sum up Kevin Sheehy is class, all-around class" said Councilman Stephen Fiala (R-South Shore), who was to attend a Black History Month event with Mr. Sheehy at Tottenville tomorrow. "I know they say we are all expendable, but not everyone is and Tottenville just lost a very, very important figure in its community."
Fiala had recently agreed to fund $250,000 this year and next year to bring a regulation pool to the school if Sheehy's Young Ambassadors could match the funds.
"I just had a meeting with Kevin and the Young Ambassadors and they jokingly said we should name it the Sheehy Center, so this is kind of scary," Fiala said. "Kevin was a great lobbyist for Tottenville. I am really shocked and saddened."
The school is no stranger to tragedy, as many are still mourning the loss of Andrea Melendez, a recent graduate who fell eight stories to her death down the stairwell of her dormitory at Columbia University in December. She was one of Sheehy's favorites.
As with Ms. Melendez's death, students and faculty will grieve as a school and support one another, Tuminaro noted. "There will be a void, but we'll pull together," he said.
"I never saw anyone as interested and caring as he was in making sure his students did well and were just a part of the community," said Eleanor Conforti, District 31 community school board chairwoman. "I know Tottenville High School will miss him terribly. You know, it is fitting how he died. He died exactly the way he lived with his students."
In addition to his wife, Elaine, Sheehy is survived by one son, Kevin. The family lives in Smoke Rise, N.J.
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